Trumped up

It is a hefty box in every sense: 13 CDs, supplemented with two DVDs, accompanied by a gorgeous hardcover book and a variety of tchotchkes, including a poster that traces the twisted family trees and time lines of the band and, just as helpfully, replicas of legal documents that explain why the group didn't retain rights to its recordings for years…

Don Ellis' Connection, issued in 1972, was a brazen attempt at swinging for the chart fences. Most of the tunes selected come right from the pop vernacular of the day. They range from a barnburning read of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's theme for "Jesus Christ Superstar" and a dirty funk approach to Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move" to a provocative and spacy cover of Procol Harum's "Conquistador" that feels like the horn chart for Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" wedded to Mason Williams' "Classical Gas" trumped by Stan Kenton in the mid-'50s. While the description may read atrociously, sonically and aesthetically the set comes off far better. Ellis incorporated inventive, in-your-face, swaggering arrangements into his hearing and execution of pop's possibilities in the jazz world of the early '70s…

While electric guitarist Holdsworth retains his signature ultra-legato, speed demon sound, he has added a couple of new wrinkles to this date. He's attempting to play some legitimate jazz standards, a couple of Joe Henderson tunes, and other sidebar items. He's also working with the synthaxe, a synthesizer controller, on three cuts. The most revelatory moments of the date come from the acoustic sounding digital piano of Gordon Beck, a true master whose be-bop chops and inventive solo work cements the legitimate jazz aesthetic into the fiber of this music. Electric bass guitarist Gary Willis (of Tribal Tech) and drummer Kirk Covington work pretty well together, and swing, albeit in a more rock/R&B orientation…