"Part-way through Simple Complex, you feel like you've wandered into some kind of high-octane salon, overhearing eloquently woven strands of musical conversation. Weber and a dozen friends, including venerables Gary Burton and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, trade ideas with precision, polish and nuance. That's the sense of the title as well as the music itself; technical mastery and intricate variations in the service of clarity and seeming simplicity. Most of Weber's originals feature complex changing time signatures, chords, keys, and tempos even within a single composition - usually played fast, and always flawlessly.

Simple Complex works on the emotional level too - the outing doesn't dissipate into academic exercises. You can whistle these tunes in your car, although it will take a few run-throughs to approximate them.

The brassy feel and urgent, rip-tempo unison playing that introduces a couple of the tunes, like "Hot Ice," are faintly reminiscent of better hard-bop anthems. However, occasionally, a soloist becomes ensnared while negotiating one of the more complex charts and starts repeating phrases. But far more often, trumpeter Diego Urcola, tenor Eric Alexander, and Weber (on piano) lay out fluid solo lines, full of unexpected turns and implications."

-- STEVE NASH- Jazziz