JOE SANTA MARIA & DAVID TRANCHINA, Oblique Rhyme

While bright, clever, eye-popping cover imagery is no longer at a premium in this streaming dominated age, we should be thankful that thoughtful jazz artists like saxophonist Joe Santa Maria and bassist David Tranchina hired Gnartoons to add vibrant visual energy – via strange, offbeat and ravenous monster-like cartoon characters amidst a brilliant orange backdrop – to reflect the dynamic, offbeat spirit of their often lyrical, always charming and whimsical debut album Oblique Rhyme.

Forming a quartet with fellow veteran L.A. musicians and longtime friends Gary Fukushima (piano) and drummer Colin Woodford, the duo fashions a fascinating aesthetic full of explosive energy offset by gentle reflections of nature, alternating moods and a freewheeling and spontaneous sense of adventure. They open with a wild, high wire track that cooks and burns so intensely that it merited a heavy-duty sociopolitical commentary title like “War Crimes.”

It serves as a perfect introduction to Santa Maria and Fukushima’s fast, fiery improvisations and the high-spirited grooving of the rhythm section. They cool our heart palpitations significantly with the next two pieces, starting with the smoky, exploratory ballad “Hidden Lake” (a deeply soulful reflection on Tranchina’s childhood in the forests of Sonoma County) and continuing on Santa Maria’s introspective, laid back “camp song” “Mood of Mind.”

Fukushima’s haunting, slightly avant-garde ballad “Sun Thymes” offers Santa Maria an opportunity to improvise intuitively over his wandering piano musings. The quartet offsets these graceful-minded compositions (and the dreamy, spacious, perfectly titled “Ambient Ambiance”) with playful, lighthearted, funked up and swinging excursions like “Prism” and “Caricature” before wrapping with the darker, longing, blues-influenced “Picking Up The Pieces.” Santa Maria, Tranchina, Fukushima and Woodford are all super-busy cats, but hopefully they’ll find time again to follow up this brilliant, engaging collection.