ROBERTS RULES

By BRUCE HANDY

When Marcus Roberts titles an album Blues for the New Millennium (Columbia), it's no casual gesture. Having played regularly with Wynton Marsalis, the pianist shares with his former bandleader a taste for pedagogy, historicism and sheer ambition. Roberts' two most recent albums were a song cycle about romantic loss and rebirth, and a jazzman's reclamation of Rhapsody in Blue. The new disc begins with basics--covers of Robert Johnson and Jelly Roll Morton--and then branches out with 12 self-penned numbers. The climax, Roberts writes, "symbolizes what the whole record is about...our belief that jazz (blues) will dance into the 21st century." It sounds, well, better than it sounds.

Writing mostly for large ensemble, Roberts has an almost cinematic gift for juxtaposition. To those familiar with similar works by Marsalis, passages of New Orleans polyphony and Ellingtonian coloration will not be unexpected; surprises include raucous group improvisations that flirt with free jazz cacophony. But where Marsalis' music sometimes suffers from overthinking--forced passes from an all-pro quarterback--Blues rarely falters in its grooves. Thanks are due to irresistible rhythm sections, some compelling young soloists, and Roberts' compositional wit as he muscles his group through changes in rhythm and genre. This is a heady album, but it doesn't let braininess get in the way of guttier values like pungency and swing. The rest of the millennium's music should be so winningly calibrated.

--By Bruce Handy