Blue Sun
By the mid-'90s, trumpeter Mark Isham didn't need to make another solo album. After all, his artistic reputation--and financial security--had already been assured by his work as a film and television composer. He had won Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy nominations for his scores, as well as ongoing critical." Somehow, though, it wasn't enough--he "wanted a vehicle where I could realize my own artistic vision."  That vehicle isBlue Sun, Isham's first solo album in four years and the first straight-ahead, acoustic jazz album of his career. He recorded it with the jazz quintet he has led in Los Angeles in recent years (pianist David Goldblatt, saxophonist Steve Tavaglione, bassist Doug Lunn and drummer Kurt Wortman) and that's the band he brings to this project, which mirrors his lifelong admiration for Miles Davis. Isham'sBlue Sundoes have the understated romanticism of "Kind of Blue," especially in the leader's muted-trumpet smears and in pianist David Goldblatt's space-filled broken chords. The most obvious tribute comes on "And Miles to Go... Before He Sleeps," a ballad tribute to Davis featuring Isham's languid trumpet lines.--Geoffrey Himes