Filtering basic blues principles through an almost Cubist kind of modernism that's at once visceral and cerebral, Oliver Nelson's compositions and arrangements brilliantly blend post-bop uproar with steady-rolling hard bop. Freddie Hubbard's thrillingly scene-stealing trumpet runs on tracks like "Stolen Moments" are as impossible to ignore as Eric Dolphy's outward-bound alto solo on slow-burner "Yearnin'." But Nelson's cool-school sax and the hard-swinging rhythm section of Paul Chambers and Roy Haynes add crucial balance to this study in contrasts.