New York alto saxophonist and composer Steve Lehman provided some of last year's lasting jazz excitements both live and on disc, with his virtuosic, mathematically precise new music that had both contemporary-classical and street-sharp undercurrents. However, Lehman's music can sound overly scientific to some - so this unexpectedly rootsy and frequently hard-swinging set, with its scattering of standard songs, might be the ideal solution. Partnered by the powerful bass/drums duo of Matt Brewer and Damion Reid, Lehman mixes originals, such as the rigorously measured Alloy, with hard-bop jazz classics like John Coltrane's Moment's Notice, Duke Pearson's Jeannine and Jackie McLean's Mr E. There's even a showtune, the Anthony Newley hit Pure Imagination, hosed down with skimming uptempo lines and the yearning abrasiveness of Albert Ayler over a thumping bass-walk. Lehman sometimes operates in a keening, sweet-and-sour world between western pitches (as on the multiphonic Allocentric), but often with a coolly lubricated jazz fluency like Lee Konitz or the late Warne Marsh, as he does on an exhilarating Moment's Notice, but Brewer's booming bass sound and Reid's bumpy drive Makes Jeannine probably the standout track.