***1/2 François Houle 5

IN THE VERNACULAR: THE MUSIC OF JOHN CARTER

(Songlines)

Canadian clarinettist François Houle takes on the music of the late clarinettist/composer John Carter and comes through with one of the best jazz albums of the year. Carter's music is some of the most ambitious of the past two decades, and Houle captures the essence of it in quintet arrangements. He tackles excerpts from Carter's monumental five-album tone parallel to the African-American experience, Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music, as well as the previously unrecorded "Three Dances in the Vernacular." Houle's marvelous tone control and strong sense of line makes him a perfect match for this group's other horn player, trumpeter Dave Douglas. Bassist Mark Dresser, cellist Peggy Lee, and drummer Dylan van der Schyff provide propulsive swing and elegant countermelodies. There are standout moments among the soloists -- Houle on "Sticks and Stones," Douglas on "Three Dances," and the string players on "Karen in the Morning" -- but it's the group's dedication to the music and their ability to function as a unit, especially in the group improvisations, that make this album such a fitting tribute to an American original.

-- Ed Hazell