Amazon.comBowie is the most soulful of trumpeters (so much so that he sometimes has to turn it into a laughing matter), and the feeling is strong on this quintet session recorded in Milan in 1978. He's joined by another lyrical player, Arthur Blythe, on alto; a literal singer in Amina Claudine Myers on piano; and the fine rhythm team of Malachi Favors and Phillip Wilson, Bowie's original partners in the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble, the band that evolved into the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The opening "Sardegna Amore (New York is Full of Lonely People)" is a gorgeous ballad played with naked emotion. The traditional gospel song, "God Has Smiled on Me," is a tour de force, an 18-minute performance that begins as a hearty, straightahead performance of the song by Myers that gradually evolves into a beautiful collective improvisation. The trumpet playing on "3 in 1," with just bass and drums, is particularly incisive. --Stuart Broomer