Fiery chops, instinctual communal listening skills, sprawling musical vocabulary, dynamics in flight -- that's How Birds Work. On their CD "Live at the Artists' Quarter," HBW go from hard bop explorations to fusion-istic workouts to elegant melodicism on tracks like Coltrane's "Equinox," Wayne Shorter's "Footprints," and Peter Schimke's moving original "Vow." A recent Mpls/St. Paul magazine feature article described the sound as "swinging with lovely aggression -- and never swirling among the musicians for their own benefit, but constantly heading straight toward audience." Dean Granros (guitar), Peter Schimke (keyboards), Chris Bates (bass), Kenny Horst (drums).

Check out this recent video of How Birds Work or this one, both from 8/30/07.