Keeping musicians on their toes always brings out the best jazz. That’s what Ben Goldberg sought out to accomplish with ‘Vol 2: Hard Science’ and he got just the results he was looking for.

As a composite of ideas and influences introduced elsewhere, ‘Vol 1: The Humanities’ is a fine entry point to Ben Goldberg’s catalog that dilutes none of his expansive artfulness.

Scott Amendola was right, his opus orchestra piece just couldn’t be a special, one-night-only performance. Fortunately, it won’t be now.