Picture this: Hickey-Shanafelt's 9ollective shares JK stage with painter in 'Kaleidoscope Suite'

Deft arrangements for a nine-piece band, sparkling with capable solos and a bulk of new pieces, have

Hickey-Shanafelt 9ollective (with slightly different personnel) outside Jazz Kitchen

so far in its young life consistently characterized the Hickey-Shanafelt 9ollective (pronounce the "9," but see it as a stand-in for "C").

On Sunday night, its fourth appearance at the Jazz Kitchen introduced "Kaleidoscope Suite" to the club's patrons. The climax of the set began when Kelsey Behl approached an easel set up on one side of the bandstand and started work on a blank surface as the band also got to work. 

With the random, bright-colored patterns of kaleidoscopes as inspiration, she introduced parts of the spectrum, guided by the designed progress of the suite written by co-leaders Alex Shanafelt and Kent Hickey. Dominance passed from yellow ("Alchemy") through red ("Ardent Passage") to blue ("Liminal Current"), capped by a summary movement titled "Clarification."

To medieval scientists, alchemy promised to turn base metals into gold. Sounds of transmutation (timbre and texture) pervade "Alchemy," sensibly enough.  Shanafelt, usually a non-player who conducts and hosts, moved to the piano for "'Ardent Passage" as the colors intensified with the introduction of red. There were pertinent solos by tenor saxist Sean Imboden, trumpeter Hickey, and alto saxist Garrett Fasig. The most fetching aspect of "Liminal Current" was an extended dialogue between baritone saxist Trevor Mather and, laying aside his usual guitar, flutist Eric Garcia. It was a wittily displayed suggestion of how opposites can communicate across a gap,  gradually interlocking with the ensemble. Tommy Neidecker's  trombone solo in "Clarification" was a memorable highlight near the end, and the art Behl produced was enthralling.

The first part of the set neatly surveyed the band's capabilities. I was charmed by trumpeter Alex Butler's arrangement of Bud Powell's "Parisian Thoroughfare," which opened with imitations of taxi horns and bustling traffic clearly inspired by Gershwin's "An American in Paris." Butler took a clever solo in his own piece, and we also got a concentrated solo patch from drummer Joseph Alsatie. 

The set ended with one of Duke Ellington's takes on Shakespeare: "Star-Crossed Lovers," featuring altoist  Fasig, who channeled Johnny Hodges winningly at first before moving into a less seductive style. Among the originals was one that made a solid impression from someone outside the group: Alex Sjobeck, whose compositions have appealed to Shanafelt before and found a place in the band's book. It was "Ohadi," which sounds like something exotic from the Boise musician, but turns out to be "Idaho" spelled backwards.

Hickey's "Tattoo Girl" and ""Sublit Anticipation" brought forth the band at its well-honed best, including Butler with his plunger-muted solo in the latter piece. Bassist Jacob Smith got to stretch out in "Tattoo Girl" after some dialogue with the guitarist. Shanafelt's "Honeycomb" developed its rolling, churning rhythm from a ballad into something more aggressive, with the sound thickening but never getting cloudy. It provided good exposure to  Neidecker's upper range and also got one instantly fond of baritone saxophonist Mather's throaty vigor. 

The band started off in reconstituted bebop territory, with George Shearing's infectious "Conception." Launching the set with unaccompanied guitar was a nice throat-clearing touch; then, the tune's fleet charm opened up nicely trimmed spaces for solos from Hickey and Imboden.

9ollective is a disciplined band with a fresh sound and an ample display of creativity and verve.