The Modern Jazz Quartet has been performing concert jazz for almost a quarter-century. During that span they have refined a distinctive ensemble attack, elegantly understated but always delivered with bluesy bite, however subdued. Blues On Bach, the Quartet's first recording in several years (and their final as a group), exposes two facets of the group's output, sandwiching John Lewis's dainty arrangement of five Bach favorites in between four original blues lines, two by pianist Lewis, two by vibist Milt Jackson. Since "Fontessa," Lewis's celebrated neo-baroque composition from the mid-Fifties, the Quartet has pursued the intersections between classical voicings and counterpoint, and jazz rhythms and improvisation, playing Jackson's earthy directness against Lewis's more discreet urbanity. By alternating the Bach arrangements, shimmering in percussionist Connie Kay's bell-like settings, with the blues pieces, performed with the nuanced swing characteristic of this great jazz unit, Blues On Bach attractively presents the Quartet's unique blend of mannered artifice and jazz artistry. (RS 168)

JIM MILLER