Pre-Order: Lucid [CD]

Micah Thomas' fifth album Lucid - featuring alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, trombonist Kalia Vandever, bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Lesley Mok - is, in large part, a pursuit of the feeling of balance. The phrases in his playing and writing here are dynamic in motion yet concise - not too long in any direction, just hanging in space perfectly. This album is also an exploration of the feeling of ecosystem and habitat - the idea that things are happening that seem independent and maybe even random, but that also give life to the things that are happening around them and form a unified picture despite the complete autonomy of all the parts. Everyone in this band has an acute awareness of where they are and where everyone else is, and the agility to go wherever they need to go when they need to. The seeming surface independence of the band belies a tight interconnectivity.