Mr. Brookmeyer's piece, "The American Express," quickly shifted keys and tempos, and at times superimposed different emotional elements, burying a hard-driving swing under riffs that could have been played by a brass band.

He can't be underestimated as a bandleader: early on he was shaping music on the bandstand, shifting tempos and cuing the shrewdest arrangements, and he still carefully polices his musicians, directing the flow, from soft to loud, double-time to half-time, section to section.

Where Mr. Griffin's tunes were tight and hard, Mr. Barretto's group - including Adam Kolker on saxophone, Mike Mossman on trumpet and trombone, John DiMartino on piano, Hans Glawishnig on bass and Vince Cherico on drums - shifted dynamics and tempos.

They shifted tempos, jumped from idiom to idiom and used asymmetrical forms that made it impossible for the musicians to coast.

He can't be underestimated as a band leader: early on he was shaping music on the bandstand, shifting tempos and cuing the shrewdest arrangements.

Throughout the piece, he shifted tempos or made sudden changes in the volume or style of attack.

Jazz, surf, R&B, death metal, funk, acid rock, and serialism are grafted together in this collection, often into the same song, and the band shifts genres, tempos, and arrangements on a dime.

Were Mahler's performances full of distorted, shifting tempos?