Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn are mainstays on the debut album by Five Plus Six, a skillful multi-generational outfit led by arranger-trumpeter Vance Thompson. The Knoxville, Tenn., big band handles the complex orchestrations with aplomb, staying straight ahead while adding a hint of fusion on some tracks. A trio of Thelonious Monk numbers also appears on Such Sweet Thunder, along with an arrangement for an Appalachian folk song, “He’s Gone Away.”
