Drew Gress: True South

Just what the jazz world has been missing . . . more covers of John Philip Sousa's tunes. But you will be so busy listening to "True South" (loosely -- very loosely -- based on "The Stars and Stripes Forever") that you may forget to stand up and march. Taborn starts off with a solo piano melody statement that has more Ives and Monk moodiness in it than March King élan. But every couple of minutes this song shifts gears. In mid-performance, the band opts for an AACM free-for-all before switching, toward the close, into some unexpected electronics, courtesy of bandleader Drew Gress, sort of a soundtrack for Sousa as musical captain for the starship Enterprise. Most songs end up where they start out, but this one moves through about 100 years of musical history, without ever looking back.