I'm not sure exactly what bassist/composer Anne Mette Iverson had in mind in calling her CD "Best of the West," but the album's combination of her jazz quartet with a string quartet (4Corners) lives up to the title. Iverson is uniquely positioned to pull off this eclectic fusion. Before coming to New York to study jazz at The New School University in 1998, she studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Denmark and bass at The Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen. While all of the double quartet compositions are excellent, "North (Presto)" is absolutely electrifying. In place of a catchy jazz head, a la Art Blakey, Iverson offers a frenetic Bartók-like unison string riff, ornately framing the jazz band's passages. The second disc, "Many Places," showcases the talents of John Ellis (saxophones), Danny Grissett (piano), and Otis Brown III (drums) on nine adventurous tunes with plenty of room for superb solos.