Time bangs around these players like it does on the Piazza d'Espagna. There is not even much time to be young any more. Steppes knows we're moving into new spaces that will leave jazz marooned on the reefs of the past. And if it were not for the subterranean swallowing up of all the ideas and inspirations they could be said to be doing their best with an unenviable situation. It is said there's nothing like an old tune.
Steppes has a few old visitors paying brief calls, but they soon wilt before the storm.
Steppes is, then, an exciting group, not so much for what it does as for what it is attempting with youth and strength, and the endurance of a storm trooper. Anyway, it will succeed, because there is proof enough of thought behind the strutting and posturing. It often tries its best to be street-slick. Then a step in another direction, and we receive some class material, done with a proper air of arrogance. Steppes is its name, and steps are its present vocation.