When thinking of military bands, many tend to focus on their sterling technique and punctilious performances above all else. Creative concerns are rarely part of the conversation, but this album makes you wonder why. The U.S. Army Blues, a blue-chip big band of brothers that serves as the flagship jazz ensemble in the titular military branch, manages to position itself as a group that's every bit as fastidious as its concert band counterpart(s), yet equally concerned with matters related to personal expression.

These ten numbers, recorded live in 2010 at Blues Alley in Washington D. C., do an excellent job of highlighting the varied skills of this band's members. Sixteen of the eighteen musicians in the group get to step out as soloists at one time or another, the program includes compositions from six different members of the band, and the execution of the charts provides ample evidence that this is a well-oiled machine built from many sympathetic moving parts.

The band is in high spirits as things get underway with