Design Flaw is a youthful trio whose members have been making the rounds in Chicago’s underground/indie jazz scenes (w/ the Four Charms, Jeb Bishop, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Ken Vandermark) for the past few years. They play a kind of chamber-group avant-garde jazz: low-volume, loose-form melodies with the accent on group interaction, similar in essence to (but not imitative of) the early 1960s Jimmy Giuffre Trio (the one w/ Paul Bley and Steve Swallow). Jon Doyle leaves the squeek/squwack/scree approach to the poseurs - he hugs the middle and lower registers of the B flat clarinet, wringing all the vocal expressiveness he can without slipping into meandering doodles or wretched excess. Brian Dibblee (also the main composer) has a warm, buoyant tone that’s both supple (a la Charlie Haden) and subtle, and Frank Rosaly favors a minimalist bent to his drumming (but more Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke than P. Glass, to be sure) without sacrificing crisp swing when the situation calls ("Another Time"). Design Flaw don’t feel the need to blitz the Listener with waves of notes, overbearing solos and/or displays of technique - the compositions are very wide open and they play them that way, letting the music breathe. As good as this platter is, they are so much better live - so pay attention, you hepcats in the greater Chicagoland area, & I understand they may soon pay a visit to NYC.