Vibraphonist
Joe Locke and pianist
Frank Kimbrough have a developed a camaraderie that was well documented on 1999's Saturn's Child.
Beauty Burning is the next chapter in that fruitful relationship, but this time bassist
Ray Drummond and drummer
Jeff "Tain" Watts join the party. Guitarist
Paul Bollenback also appears on three tracks. Kicking off the session with
Chick Corea's up-tempo "Litha,"
Locke launches right into his furious lines and weaves them through the tune's complicated form. His intensity remains at a high level on
Darrell Grant's R&B-flavored "Twilight,"
Ray Drummond's medium-slow hard bop chart "I-95," and
Locke's closing Latin/swing romp "Rasputainian Dance," the last of which features a particularly hot solo by Bollenback.