by Stephen CookWith its finely honed and varied mix of free jazz, bebop, and world influences, Naked clocks in as a fairly typical '80s outing by the venerable, avant-garde jazz group Art Ensemble of Chicago. On the relatively straight-ahead end there are trumpeter Lester Bowie's jazz-reggae cut Tobago Tango and hard-bop swinger We Bop, as well as bassist Malachi Favor's New Orleans calypso Way Way Down Yonder. More free-form outings include Joseph Jarmen's mercurial RMR and two wholly improvised numbers credited to the band, Flash 1 and Galactic Landscape. Thankfully, amidst the shifting contexts, each member is able to maintain their distinct sound: Bowie bright and vaporous, saxophonist's Jarmen and Roscoe Mitchell singing and abstractly tart, Favors solid and comical, and percussionist Don Moye supple and strong. After two decades of perfecting their pleasingly contradictory mix of minimalist arrangements and expansive ensemble improvisations, the Art Ensemble of Chicago settled into a seasoned, if at times complacent, groove on Naked. The edgier, unpredictable feel of late-'70s releases like Nice Guys and Full Force give way to Naked's more formal and compact sound, which is appealing without being especially challenging. Still, Naked's accessibility makes it a good introduction to the Art Ensemble of Chicago's vast catalog and gives the ardent fan a nice break from more austere releases from the early part of group's career.