Grand Slam: Live at the Regattabar, Cambridge Massachusetts

This quartet line-up, led by guitarist Jim Hall, is basically a jazz supergroup: Hall, saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Lewis Nash. The set opens with a tour de force: a twelve-and-a-half-minute composition titled “Slam” that finds the group exploring melodic themes in a freer style than one would normally expect, and that tendency continues throughout the remainder of the program; the knottily complex head on “Border Crossing” gives way to some harmonically wild solos (check out Hall’s parallel-interval extravaganza), and on the aptly titled “Feel Free” things get really quite wild. This is an all-originals set featuring pieces composed by Hall and Lovano.