The term Composers Collective is quite often a thinly veiled phrase that signifies "experimental" or "avant-garde" jazz. Thankfully, that is far from true on the Composers Collective Big Band's irrepressible The Toronto Project, which carries the listener on a buoyant and colorful musical journey through Canada's largest city, capital of the province of Ontario and home to a number of superb jazz musicians.

True, there are some moments when the Collective veers from conservative to exploratory, but they are few and far between. For the most part, the ensemble cleaves to the task at hand, which is to shelter the city of Toronto and environs within a mantle of plain-spoken contemporary jazz. While there are seventeen tracks on the album, only eight are full-fledged compositions; the other nine are brief interludes depicting arrivals and departures, which someone presumably thought would be interesting. (Spoiler alert: they aren't.)

Six of the album's eight selections were written by members of the band or guest artists, including one by music director and trombonist