*** Branford Marsalis

CONTEMPORARY JAZZ

(Columbia)

Don't look for tightly arranged tunes with hummable little themes -- this is an album about aggressive sprawl and go-for-broke blowing. Not that there isn't a lot of tricky writing and arranging here -- multi-part compositions, odd meters that change at breakneck speeds. But however it was written, the material serves as a steeplechase course meant to propel the soloists to improvisational heights.

For the most part it works. The quartet's new pianist, Joey Calderazzo (replacing the late Kenny Kirkland), in particular has never sounded better -- he has Herbie Hancock's forward drive on single-note lines, the relaxed, chiming bell swing of Wynton Kelly, the smoky block-chord afterglow of Red Garland. And Marsalis himself has integrated his sources, chief among them here Coltrane and Rollins, the latter especially on the Sonny-like cover "Cheek to Cheek." But Branford moves fast, and he's too busy building ideas off his indispensable drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts and developing long arcs of improvisation to get caught up in empty mimicry. At times, it can get exhausting (the marathon "Elysium" is 15 minutes, and nothing here clocks in under six). For dessert, Marsalis rewards us with a sweet sighing Ben Webster-style blues "hidden track."

(The Branford Marsalis Quartet, with Jeff "Tain" Watts, Eric Revis, and Joey Calderazzo, plays the Somerville Theatre this Tuesday, October 24, at 8 p.m. Call 625-5700.)

-- Jon Garelick