Intrusion opens with a respectful but imaginative version of John Coltrane’s “Africa,” swaying with great cool on a meditative rumble of rhythm, the bright saxophone and trumpet probing, investigating the harmonic possibilities. Much of the fourth album by Machine Mass Sextet could proudly sit alongside those superb jazz LPs released in the late ‘60s on the Pacific or Impulse! labels. Some tracks take the mind back to the first, creative stirrings of fusion; they do an excellent version of Joe Zawinul’s “In a Silent Way.” Most of Intrusion consists of original compositions. The title piece begins as an impressionistic piano etude, the notes gently fading between keys, before the ensemble joins in, carrying the music to new places.
