Celebrating his tenth release as a leader, alto saxophonist Mike DiRubbo releases his highly anticipated new project, Inner Light, on TRRcollective. Fronting a new quartet featuring organist Brian Charette, drummer Jongkuk Kim, and guitarist Andrew Renfroe, Mike and Co. invite you to join them for an hour of musical storytelling of relatable life experiences.

The eleven tracks on Inner Light cover a lot of ground in 65 minutes. Wasting no time with warmups, the quartet drops into high gear immediately with “JK in NYC,” as Charette channels Larry Young and Keith Emerson in a Hammond masterclass. “Scrollin’ and Trollin’,” a metaphor for online life, packs a long message into four minutes before the explosive facemelter “The Muse,” a knotty micro-epic with high-caliber playing from the entire ensemble, and a stunning solo from Renfroe. Even as the band stretches out on long, evocative journeys like “The Moment Before Sunrise,” the performances celebrate memorable melodies with as much vigor as the edge-of-your-seat musicianship. The straightforward beauty of “Love the Same”— celebrating disability inclusion, love, and support for differently-abled persons — is a powerful reminder that clarity and complexity can not only co-exist but augment and amplify one another.