MITCH MARCUS QUINTET, InAround

Some jazz ensembles build their identity around a recognizable sound; the Mitch Marcus Quintet seems more interested in discovering how many different sounds can coexist before the music settles into anything predictable. On InAround, the New York-born saxophonist, composer and arranger unleashes a nine-part collection of restless invention, where bristling post-bop, electric-guitar abrasion, muscular swing and playful melodic detours continually collide. The result is a vibrant, often gloriously unruly statement from a band whose members listen as intently as they play.

Marcus’s tenor is the commanding voice, but the quintet’s character emerges from the friction and chemistry among all five musicians. Evan Francis’s alto saxophone and flute add contrasting colors, from brassy unison passages to buoyant, almost airborne lines. Jeff Miles brings a distinctly rock-inflected edge, using distortion, sustain and sharply angled accents to disrupt the horns’ momentum or propel it somewhere unexpected. Peter Brendler’s upright bass and Jerad Lippi’s drums supply a supple yet forceful foundation, shifting readily between swinging propulsion, intricate stop-start patterns and full-throttle rhythmic surges.

The title track establishes the album’s volatile vocabulary immediately. A pounding low-end pulse and distorted guitar give way to swirling saxophone phrases, then a brisk swing passage, before the arrangement veers through psychedelic sonorities, atonal flashes and renewed bursts of improvisational heat. That appetite for sudden turns animates much of the program. “3 Up, 3 Down” is a particularly exhilarating display of speed and coordination, its racing groove carrying Marcus’s fervent tenor and Miles’s searing guitar into a tightly wound exchange. “4-7-11” similarly thrives on emphatic horn figures, abrupt pauses and escalating instrumental interplay.

Yet the album’s restless energy is more compelling because Marcus understands the value of contrast. “Light Grey” opens a spacious, reflective window, with gently brushed drums, lyrical guitar and a softened horn melody creating room for a more inward conversation. “Mailiam” balances its stop-start accents and fiery guitar excursion with a smoother, more flowing tenor statement. Elsewhere, “Uh Huh” and “Hope” bring flute into the foreground, its nimble, dancing phrases lending a lighter, whimsical dimension to the quintet’s denser textures. “Out the Door Samba” injects an infectious Latin-tinged pulse, while “Tranein’” closes with brassy ensemble writing, wildly expressive flute and saxophone lines, and another surge of collective improvisation.

Marcus’s broader musical life—as a composer for dance and film and a collaborator across an unusually wide range of styles—helps explain the music’s physicality and refusal to stay in one lane. Recorded in Brooklyn in December 2024, InAround captures a quintet comfortable with risk, responsive to the moment and unafraid of a little sonic turbulence. Its real achievement is the coherence beneath the commotion: every detour feels like part of an ongoing conversation, and every player has room to alter its direction. InAround rewards listeners willing to follow that conversation wherever it leads.