Many of us dearly miss those life-affirming nights in jazz clubs when a band can do no wrong, blowing as if there's no tomorrow, and temporarily washing away the workaday realities of existence. The New York-Paris Reunion Quintet's Live at the Bird's Eye Jazz Club, Basel takes some of the yearning and emptiness out of waiting for the resumption of public performances. While there's no substitute for sitting a few feet away from the action, drink in hand, absorbing the sounds with every fiber of your being, and secure in the knowledge that at least some of the people around you share your enthusiasm, the Quintet's seventy-eight minute recording manages to conjure a similar experience.

Recorded near the end of a three-week European tour, the Quintet offers a large helping of persuasive individual expression in the context of a unified group sound. Regardless of the tracks' differences in tempo and composition, the record tends to move fast and contains an abundance of telling details. Whether it's a burner, ballad or something in between, each one of the seven cuts feels like an adventure. Stylistically speaking, the band wears the influence of bebop, yet they're not particularly concerned with a strict preservation of the genre. Bop is treated as a point of departure, something to be played with and molded by the devices of each musician. The inclusion of