A spontaneously creative studio quartet makes its debut. Drummer Nate Smith, keyboardist Kiefer, and bassist CARRTOONS each boast and sometimes even share connections both within and beyond the jazz community. Among the other sounds, hip-hop and R&B conspicuously feature in their wider respective catalogs, which helps to explain how producer Kenneth Blume—aka Kenny Beats—entered their orbit. For their Blue Note Records debut, the FATHERS ensemble unsurprisingly builds off their genre-fluid proclivities to yield some exciting, at times unexpected results. Beginning with the progressive, bossa nova-adjacent “EYE LEVEL,” the studio quartet start to unveil their capabilities as a spontaneously creative unit. “PATCHWORK” and especially “PEARL” lean into ’70s Brazilian influences, while “THE LEAK” more intentionally rummages in the boom-bap pocket while Kiefer’s keys imbue the rhythm with melodic soulfulness. The deeper one ventures into the roughly half-hour-long FATHERS, even more gets revealed as Blume’s approach gives each instrumentalist ample space in which to play.