js “The Sound Catalogues Volume 1” is the debut album from saxophonist Carlo Muscat, and it certainly sounds more mature and developed than your typical first outing. Muscat and his group play modern post bop, and take full advantage of that genre’s open nature. Sometimes they play to the changes, and sometimes out, sometimes they free up the rhythm, and sometimes they stay in the pocket, there’s lots of nice variety here. Muscat’s playing will have you thinking Wayne Shorter sometimes, he also sites Mark Turner as an influence, and the group reflects an interest in Shorter’s work with Miles in the mid-60s, but these are not mere copyists. Trumpeter Daniele Raimondi doesn’t sound much like Miles, but he instead features his own pure brassy sound with less affectation than your typical Miles influenced player.

The album opens with the moody “Fatman and Little Boy”, lots of nice spacious phrasing on this one. “Dust Bowl” follows with a hard groove and semi-free soloing with a wide open texture that recalls early Ornette. The following tunes explore a variety of styles with “Another Sun’ having a bit of modern downtown fusion drive, while “Wilbur’s Rise” features a striking melody. There is no dead weight on here, all of the tunes are excellent. Some of the playing on here is cool in that modern European way, but this is not the sterile music of a certain well known label, but is instead a music of deep soul and natural grit.

One of the nicest things about “Sound Catalogues” is the excellent natural sound, no phony reverb or excessive compression to kill the spirit of the music. There are some other well known saxophonists who would be wise to copy this approach and ditch the cheezy digital effects. Like the rest of you, I have a lot of music to choose from these days, but this one has been getting a lot of repeat spins, and there’s always something new to hear, highly recommended for fans of modern jazz.