with his restless mind and inclusive soul, Don Byron can easily become a jazz fan's obsession. One never knows what he, his clarinet and his compositional and arranging skills will seize upon, but for his five years as a session leader, his music has always been fresh and enchanting. Byron has taken delightful turns with klezmer and Afro-Cuban in the past; with "Bug Music," he selects works by two composers, Raymond Scott and John Kirby, whom he considers unjustly disparaged, and points up their compatibility with several Duke Ellington band tunes.

Latter-day jazz critics and tastemakers largely dismissed the classically inclined black bandleader Kirby and the fountainhead of cartoon soundtracks Scott because their material restricted improvisation. Byron argues that's irrelevant, and makes another point here — all this music can sound wacky, yet is consistently forceful. On "Bug Music," Byron obeys his own dictum: "To combine information from outside sources with one's individual sense of what is possible."

While pioneer clarinet virtuoso Sidney Bechet goes unmentioned, Byron embraces the master's sly vivacity as never before, which helps give each track the joy of early jazz, but with all the harmonic and rhythmic complexity of a modern ensemble. Scott, Kirby, and Ellington trifles can be thoroughly composed and yet rollicking, jazz-drenched entertainment when guided by Byron's ear. He understands that the scurrying themes of Scott's "Power Station" are as familiar from Bugs Bunny shorts and beloved as the Tchaikovsky motif in Kirby's "Bounce of the Sugar Plum Fairies" was to an earlier generation.

For those who can't live without improvisation, the arrangement of Billy Strayhorn's "Snibor," three times the length of any other track, gives the players room to stretch. Byron makes good use of three of the most fluid drummers in jazz, Pheeroan akLaff, Billy Hart, and Joey Baron, and spices the program with a couple of droll vocals, one by Byron himself. Guitarist David Gilmore deserves more solo space, but that's the sole flyspeck on "Bug Music." The title, incidentally, comes from Byron's favorite "Flintstones" episode, in which the then-wild Beatles (called "The Bugs") are rejected in Bedrock but eventually win everyone over. Today a bug, tomorrow a beauty.

— Milo Miles

Milo Miles' music commentary can be heard on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air." He is a regular contributor to Salon.