Martin Speake Big Band release the album Hidden Vision, arranged by Charlie Rees

The Martin Speake Big Band have released Hidden Vision, an album built from seven pieces the saxophonist and composer Martin Speake originally wrote for a small group, reworked into big band arrangements by Charlie Rees. UK Jazz News reviewed the record on August 14, calling the ensemble's playing and soloing "through-the-roof" throughout.

Rees took Speake's more intimate original compositions and rebuilt them at a larger scale, according to the review, turning small-group writing into what the outlet called works of large-scale joyful exploration. The opening track, "Bill Wrathall," is named for a real person: a former BBC engineer who later became a well known saxophone repair man in London, and the review jokes that the music's widescreen, cinematic feel would suit a detective chasing him down a California freeway.

UK Jazz News singled out several players by name, including drummer Tom Hooper on the track named for him, calling his playing "ridiculously good," and the Czech pianist Emil Viklicky, who solos on three of the album's titles, including one named for Keith Jarrett. Speake himself takes a solo on every track, closing the record's title cut with what the review called a corker.

The album leans almost entirely on original material, with one exception: a version of Jimmy McHugh's 1937 standard "Where Are You?", which the review says lets two mournful saxophones carry the melody, joined by a solo flute, before the rest of the band offers its sympathy. The closing title track nods to 1970s big band styles without imitating them, reworked by Rees, who the review notes "wasn't around in the 20th century" but absorbed its influences all the same.

Chris Traves handled the recording and Scott Stroman conducted the sessions. Hidden Vision is out now and available from Bandcamp, one of this week's arrivals on the release calendar. It lands as part of the UK's active jazz scene, where big band writing continues to find arrangers willing to rebuild small-group material for a full ensemble.