The second recording co-led by trumpeter Terence Blanchard and altoist Donald Harrison (both of whom had become stars with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers) mixes together the influences of New Orleans (they even perform a somber version of "When The Saints Go Marching In"), hard bop and the avant-garde. With pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Phil Bowler and the colorful drummer Ralph Peterson, Jr. making strong contributions, the quintet performs spirited renditions of four Blanchard originals, two Harrison songs, "The Saints" and the ballad "When I Fall In Love."

This recording of Handel's Acis and Galatea (or Acis und Galatea) features the German translation and arrangement completed by Mozart in Vienna circa 1788, per the instructions of the Baron Gottfried von Swieten to "modernize" Handel's pieces - including Alexander's Feast, Messiah, Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, and Acis and Galatea. Mozart kept much of Handel's original string arrangements, but proceeded to layer harmonies with a degree of sophistication that Handel could only have dreamed of (quoting the author, Roger Hamilton, in the very informative enclosed booklet with the libretto).

Niccolò Jommelli is a composer whose significance in his own time has strangely not endured. His importance as an innovator in the field of opera is probably as significant as that of Gluck, in the generation immediately following. He was particularly important in the development of orchestrally accompanied recitative, a feature that is apparent throughout this oratorio. Indeed, the orchestral importance is one of the highlights of the disc, for, while the singing is excellent, the playing of the Berliner Barock Akademie is outstanding. There are also several excellently played aria obbligatos. This is the second feature of Jommelli’s writing that comes across as reason for surprise at his neglect. The writing in his arias is both melodically beautiful and extensively developed; many of the arias are seven or eight minutes long, yet with no padding of sequences. The demands that this places on the soloists is considerable, and they are a uniformly excellent group, Anke Herrmann and Jeffrey Francis in particular rising to the challenge of some exceptional demands with panache.