And so goes the rest of the album. This is great throwback stuff.

Along with Miley, bassist Doug Shreeve and drummer Eric Wells round out this formidable trio of southern California talent. Special guesting on keys is Jeff Babko, veteran of Simon Phillips touring unit.

There are moments of sublime ("Imagine That") and swing ("Inflatable You"), but principal to doing any adventurous instrumentation is time. As in, musicians playing together over a long period of time. These guys have obviously spent several years together, the innate sense of direction comes from any member of the group, and the others effortlessly follow. There are many who spend years trying to study how to do that, but to get this inexplicably good, you just have to do it.

With this kind of group chemistry, it almost seems sacrilegious to spotlight solos, but Miley's lyricism on "Reunion" is stunning. Shreeve's solos on "Dark Tower" and "I Must Have Been Mistaken" also suggest a lot of homage to the first generation of jazzers who decided to plug in. Drummer Wells doesn't have a real open "solo" in the purest sense of the world, but really, when playing this kind of adventurous material the drummer probably has enough to think about.

For fans of old Lifetime, Bill Connors "Step It," Allan, Metheny, this is worth checking out.