Broadway, jazz, ragtime, classical, sacred--Leonard Bernstein incorporated so many elements in his work that there comes a point at which genre is irrelevant. Proteus 7, comprising two trumpets, tuba, percussion, woodwind, and a pair of trombones, has a most appropriate name for an ensemble paying tribute to this genius. The seven jazz musicians perform their own arrangements, mostly by percussionist F. Feza Zweifel, alongside original compositions. Bernstein's Mass provoked controversy with brass bands and electric guitars, yet the excerpts here are both joyfully golden and reverential. Anthony DiLorenzo brings some blistering, exhilarating trumpet to the "Mambo" from West Side Story (his own composition Mostly Influential, a fantasy on Gershwin, Prokofiev, and Bernstein playing poker). Woodwind player Charles Pillow adds his own commentary with the Suite from West Side Story, three short movements that interpolate new material with the original score, especially the song "I Have a Love." The innovative, boundary-breaking spirit of Bernstein lives on in a set that should appeal to lovers of jazz and 20th-century classical music equally. Performances are tight, polished, and dynamic, and the recorded sound stupendous. --Gary S. Dalkin
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