The fourth album as leader from pianist Garth Alper, Stratus, is a nine-piece musical portrait painted on a canvas of seven original colors and two re-imagined standards designed in the good ol' fashioned straight-ahead tradition. Dr. Alper, coordinator of Jazz Studies at the University of Louisiana (UL) in Lafayette, draws on a handful of faculty members at UL, in creating a very formidable quintet that provides "their own artistic insights" into crafting and producing the album. The result, of course, is a splendid and exciting session of straight jazz that's quite appealing.

Starting right out of the gate with one of the leader's "favorite instrumental textures: piano and bass playing in unison," "Out of the Woods" is one of the most expressive pieces of the set, with the drummer's constant beat and Alper's excellent work alongside Michael Jenner's soulful saxophone all coming together to make it one of the recording's outstanding tracks. "Quackery," was intended as a jazz shuffle and though brief, it is one of the album's faster-paced tracks, featuring Jeff George's delightful guitar romp and Jenner, with another expressive saxophone solo.

The title track is, perhaps, the most ambitious piece of the session, finding the saxophonist on soprano as the melody develops and the pianist takes over the song with more delicious keyboard strokes as Nash and Munson keep the rhythm and slow groove percolating. Clearly one of the finer tracks of the set, this one definitely deserves repeated spins for full enjoyment of one atmospheric musical experience.

The first of the two re-imagined standards here is