Producers are often praised when they make each individual voice shine. But on Jimmy Heath's Really Big!, Orrin Keepnews deserves credit for creating a genuine group voice from 10 individuals.

Heath shares many of Big's brightest moments with soloists Clark Terry (trumpet), Nat Adderley (cornet), and brother Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (alto sax). Listen to how sympathetically the rhythm section supports Heath's tenor sax, and you might think they sound so close that they could be related. And you'd be correct -- Jimmy's brothers Percy and Albert respectively man bass and drums. Together, their bass and drums introduce the sound of Africa into the rhythm track running under "Green Dolphin Street," to evoke "A Night in Tunisia."

Both takes of "Nails" (the original and Keepnews Edition bonus track) skitter and pop like classic Count Basie jump blues, especially when Cannonball carves off a slice of funk with his incisive alto, and pianist Cedar Walton cascades brilliant blue ripples and waves. Gently rocking, "My Ideal" elegantly spotlights Walton, whose disciplined but funky bounce grooves. Walton's breakneck solo in Heath's closer "The Picture of Heath" is even more stunning.

In Heath's words, Really Big! has "a big-band sound with a small-band feeling." In my words, it sounds and feels like great Basie, which is a tribute to Heath's arrangements and their execution: This ensemble, not a band but a group of like-minded pros assembled just for these sessions, sounds as tight as one of the greatest working bands in history.

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