Following up his debut album Meditations on Mingus (“Ingenious wrinkles along with dazzling and deeply realized performances from all” — Neil Tesser, Jazziz), bassist Ethan Philion pivots from a larger 10-piece unit to a spry, economical quartet on his brilliant sophomore release Gnosis. The spirit of Charles Mingus is present, most clearly in the quartet’s treatment of “What Love” (Mingus’s epic deconstruction of the Cole Porter standard “What Is This Thing Called Love”). But the focus on this new outing is original music, played with drive and ceaseless invention by alto saxophonist Greg Ward, trumpeter Russ Johnson and drummer Dana Hall joining the leader on bass.

Johnson and Hall were integral to the Meditations on Mingus ensemble. Ward, leader of the acclaimed Rogue Parade, had a major influence on Philion in his first few years as a Chicagoan. “I studied with Dana while working toward my master’s from DePaul University,” the bassist recalls, “and I learned from Greg at his weekly jam session at the Hungry Brain and from performing with him.” The connection with Johnson is more recent but no less important: “Russ’s playing was already a source of inspiration by the time we started working together. I’m fortunate to work with him often in this group, in my Mingus project and in his quartet with Mark Feldman and Tim Daisy.”