Chicago Tribune -CD Review - The Cycle of Love

Maurice Brown's latest

Former Chicago trumpeter Maurice Brown makes a significant artistic leap forward in his sophomore CD, "The Cycle of Love" (Brown Records). Though Brown's liner notes offer a detailed description of the narrative arc behind the music, these 10 tunes ultimately require no back story. Many of the cuts, such as "Fly By Night" and "Merry Go Round," show Brown's gifts for crafting indelible melodic hooks. But others, such as "Misunderstood" and the title cut, bristle with extended passages of rigorous, sinewy improvisation. Even so, a pervasive lyricism drives most of Brown's work on trumpet, with comparably fervent playing from tenor saxophonist Derek Douget. Essentially, Brown and his quintet have found the place where jazz, soul and pop converge, shortchanging none of these languages but drawing eloquently from each of them.

hreich@tribune.com