In a career now in its third decade, alto saxophonist David Binney's greatest accomplishment, despite being a player of no small worth, has been as a composer whose often knottily idiosyncratic tunes manage to remain not just accessible, but deeply compelling. From the earliest days of Lost Tribe through to last year's outstanding Third Occasion, Binney's distinctive compositional style has become a touchstone for players on the New York scene and beyond.

It's not that he can't play directly in the tradition—his own work couldn't come from anyplace but—he just generally chooses not to. While past albums, including 2005's Bastion of Sanity (Criss Cross), have occasionally included songs from the standards repertoire, the saxophonist has never before released an album like Aliso, where five of its nine tracks are not Binney originals, taking up well over half of its 73-minute running time.

A function of its participants being unable to convene until the night before the recording, Aliso could be considered a tad schizophrenic. Binney's tunes are not exactly more direct, but they are less complex, encouraging even greater emphasis on blowing; a nice dovetail with music from