**** Matt Wilson Quartet

GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE

(Palmetto)

Matt Wilson's second album as a leader is one of the year's freshest and most passionate releases. He's a hard-swinging melodic drummer in the tradition of Ed Blackwell and Max Roach, with a sense of humor and adventure.

His working quartet, featuring reed players Andrew D'Angelo and Joel Frahm and bassist Yosuke Inoue, are just right for his charmingly skewed music. They deepen the lighter moments of "Schoolboy Thug," a hilarious send-up of heavy metal, but they don't take themselves so seriously that the complex aspects of "Andrew's Ditty" descend into self-indulgence. The title track features Ned Sublette auctioning off farm equipment as the instruments "bid" on a tractor -- a marvelous bit of comedy that's also musically sophisticated. The Sun Ra-inspired "Searchlight" and Herbie Nichols's "Chit-Chatting" are disciplined, swinging explorations that push the compositions without dissolving into chaos. Saxophonist Lee Konitz duets with Wilson on a short track dedicated to the late guitarist Attila Zoller and joins the band in a collective improvisation on Wilson's "Land of Lincoln." It's only March, but this album is going to be high on my year-end Top 10 list.

-- Ed Hazell