Peggy Lee Band

This release marks a new phase in this long running band’s existence — they’ve grown horns. Now blessed with trumpet, trombone and sax, as well as two guitarists, the Peggy Lee Band have many more options to create the precise colours necessary to bring Lee’s exacting music to life. More often than not, the horns are treated strictly as ensemble instruments rather than a set of frontline soloists. At times, they seem more like keyboards in the way they’re used. Lee shows her leadership skills more as a composer than as a player who takes a solo on every track. Compositions, even within the three free improv "Offshoot” tracks, are carefully un-spooled. Her production, aided by drummer Dylan Van Der Schyff, is improving steadily; her albums used to sound totally austere but now there’s ample warmth. Case in point is "Scribble Town,” which would’ve been impossible to do justice to without two guitars, Lee’s cello and bass providing spiky yet lush scribbles. I could have done without the Pollyanna-ish cover of Bob Dylan’s "All I Want To Do” but the more melancholy and math-y the better for this increasingly interesting band.