ALBUM REVIEWS : *** 1/2 CARLA BLEY “Fleur Carnivore” <i> Watt</i> :<i> Albums are rated from one star (poor) to five stars (a classic). </i>

Recorded live at Copenhagen’s Montmartre club in 1988, “Fleur” moves away from Bley’s recent and somewhat predictable group efforts (“Night-glo,” “Sextet”) back to more ambitious territory. Here, the composer/arranger/keyboardist has her 15-piece ensemble create backdrops--steamy, rhythmic jungles, downtown traffic jams heavy with horns and animated scenes of cocktail chatter--while alloting generous chunks of improvisational space. Though some of the solos sound a bit belligerent for Bley’s well-considered themes, good individual efforts abound: Trumpeter Lew Soloff displays strong logic on the title cut while Bley-mate and bassist Steve Swallow shows off melodic smarts on “Healing Power.”