But Imaginary Day, the group's 12th album and its first for Warner Brothers, is unusually unusual. Critics used to ask the same question about bebop. At some point that question, when aimed at Pat Metheny, will seem as silly as it does today, when applied to Charlie Parker or Dizzy Gillespie.
Jazz is about freedom, vision, imagination, inspiration, improvisation and chops.
The road to Warner Brothers is littered with the carcasses of players who lacked the full package. This album has it all. An imaginary journey through a musical and magical dream landscape. It begins with the CD cover, an iconographic rendering of the names of the album and the group in hieroglyphs. It involves instruments that are not of this earth, as well as acoustic bass, piano and guitars.