Paradise
One of Tom Harrell's stated goals is "to find beauty in music and life."  On this sumptuous, 71-minute disc, the trumpeter and flugelhornist, augmented by strings and surrounded by sympathetic bandmates, succeeds admirably. This is beautiful music, more suggestive of a chamber group than a jazz one per se, though Harrell's full-bodied tone and tenorJimmy Greene's attractive gruffness give the music heft and swing. The production throughout emphasizes a lush density over which Harrell builds lovely tone poems, each one distinctive, though the entire CD, beginning with "Daybreak" and ending with "Sunrise," suggests a coherent vision of reflection and introspection. The mood is sustained in the lengthy "Wind Chant" and "Morning Prayer, Parts One and Two," where Harrell's smooth, rich sound is given full flight. Reminiscent ofFreddie Hubbard's CTI recordings of the early 1970s, this music showcases the logic and beauty of matching strings with strong, melodic trumpet playing.--Wally Shoup