This is guitarist John Abercrombie's 24th album for the this label, and to its credit ECM has never leaned on him to be anything other than the subtly underplaying improviser he has always elected to be.
Abercrombie has never given himself up to John Scofield's raw-chord, full-on fusion approach, or Pat Metheny's singing swing, or Bill Frisell's pedal-powered abstractions - but you feel he could make a pretty good job of all of them if he wanted. Abercrombie, like Jim Hall before him, is an electric guitar meditator who's often to be found ruminating in very classy company.
Class Trip features the same quartet that made the excellent Cat'n'Mouse (2002). It promises to be at least as good to start with, but it exhibits fewer explicit hooks than its predecessor, exploring instead the deepening layers of empathy between four players who were clearly made for each other. This makes the collective improvising between Abercrombie, violinist Mark Feldman, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron quite uncannily inventive and alert, but maybe results in a flatter landscape.
Cat'n'Mouse had plenty of Abercrombie's fondness for exposing a guitar-jazz sound (lately John McLaughlin's 1970s Mahavishnu Orchestra, before that the Hammond organ trio effect) to his own kind of thoughtful, chamber-music reinvention, and this disc opens on the Mahavishnu feel once again, with the diaphanously funky Dansir.
The guitarist's quietly purposeful lines develop with all their familiar melodic unpredictability, and the remarkable Mark Feldman is ecstatically explosive in the opening tracks, particularly against Joey Baron's powerful percussion. The contrapuntal improvising of Abercrombie and Feldman is delicious on the swinging Descending Grace. Abercrombie comes close to a fierce attack on the restless Illinoise, and Feldman's country-music allegiances, Abercrombie's affection for waltzes and the ensemble's open attitude come together on an atmospheric version of Bartok's Soldier's Song.