by Thom JurekAnthem is, at least in part, a true emotional response to the continued suffering in 2007 of Christian Scott's fellow New Orleanians two years after Hurricane Katrina. It's a completely different record than its predecessor but even more forward looking, inclusive, and full of chancy moves. It begins somberly with the title track, which introduces something of a suite that includes the various themes of the entire album. The groove is there (thanks to the solid, skeletal drumming of Marcus Gilmore and bassist Esperanza Spalding, and later, Luques Curtis), but it's slow, the mood a bit darker. Whereas Rewind That had a late-night, after-hours relaxed vibe, Anthem feels different, from the very first notes of "Litany Against Fear" where the first eight bars of Aaron Parks' piano introduce something that might have come from a Philip Glass record. When the cymbals begin to shimmer, Spalding's four-note bassline and Matt Stevens' electric guitar enter just ahead of Scott's melody line, and the listener is taken into a mournful, somber world where what comes forth is not depressing, but beautifully elegiac, almost like a prayer though its dynamic is powerful, straightforward in movement, and bridges ascend from simple melody before returning as if to restate something affirmatively. It's a beautiful and moving. A tune like this one, as well as several others here, would not have been out of place on a Manfred Eicher produced ECM session, though the feel is never icy. ...