Celebrating 40 years as a performing ensemble, the West Coast saxophone quartet ROVA of Bruce Ackley on soprano saxophone, Steve Adams on alto & soprano saxophones, Jon Raskin on baritone saxophone, and Larry Ochs on tenor saxophone, reworked compositions from all members transversing their past 34 years, in an absolutely impressive and diverse album.

The Rova Saxophone Quartet formed in the late 1970s amid a boom of experimentation in music, collaborating with avant-garde icons such as Henry Kaiser and Fred Frith. Through a rich catalog of 30-plus recordings, Rova's output includes original jazz and chamber compositions, and a variety of collaborations including Terry Riley's 1987 piece, Chanting the Light of Foresight.

Saxophone quartets can be an acquired taste, especially if their members are content playing supper-time jazz. However, Rova's commitment to pushing forward, and challenging themselves and their audiences accounts for much of their perseverance. That, and talent. Their latest recording, In Transverse Time (Les Disques Victo), finds the quartet in meticulous harmony, with each player taking a measured approach to their solos. The Quartet's members play multiple horns, but each settles into one primary instrument: Jon Raskin's deep baritone holds steady while Bruce Ackley's horn shimmers in tandem with the inventive brilliance of soprano virtuoso Steve Lacy. Ochs' soulful tenor is unmistakable, and Steve Adams' alto is fresh and bouncy. The whole recording is a musical journey through a wilderness of whistling reeds, but the 24 minute finale, "Hidden in Ochre," lands listeners back at home after a wonderful whirlwind of sound.

"All those pieces were composed by members of the band in the past three-four years," Ochs says. "We'll play the entire CD [in Atlanta] and..add older pieces we have not been performing for many years to fill out the show. Rova hit its 40th anniversary..so it made sense to look back and grab some pieces that are still alive and inspiring cool improvisations. We have a gazillion pieces at this point, but a lot of them, as great as they were, are played out," he adds. "We've wrested everything we could from them, so to speak. We think these we're adding still have some life but also complement the music we have in the book now, and are a different 'color' than the pieces on the new CD. In fact, when I listen to the new CD, I find it surprisingly unique in our CD catalog. So grabbing some pieces from the past that lead us, and the listeners, other places was easy to do."