Drummer Simon Phillips and pianist Jeff Babko had clear inspiration for Vantage Point. The prototypical mid-1960s blowing session and the line between Miles Davis's 1965-68 band and the rise of Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter's very Miles-ish V.S.O.P. drive the duo and the rest of their quintet here. It drives them heartily, too. Phillips has the pounce of an Elvin Jones and the finesse of Tony Williams. Their Los Angeles band has some killer horns, to boot. Saxist Brandon Fields blows Shorter-esque lines and high-flying solos, while trumpeter Walt Fowler dishes out hot bursts and treats these brassed-up melodies as occasions for full-bore attack. He even comes close to Kenny Wheeler's utterly unique bigness on "New Blooded," which has the band playing lyrically while Phillips readies for all-out flight. Vantage Point has precisely the offhand quality that Phillips, a studio and session drummer well versed in the in-studio extremities of the rock world, describes seeking in the liner notes. This is a brisk session with lots of crashing in and through tunes, one that catches a fine hard-bop unit in full flight. The closing look at Hubbard's "Spirits of Trane" is a smashing good 15 minutes, all wild and woolly. --Andrew Bartlett
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