This unexpected summit from the Tony Rice Unit communicates deeply and wisely--without a single sung word. Tony Rice's damaged vocal chords may still be healing, but his guitar playing--as captured in these previously unreleased sessions from 1996--has remained nimble, adventurous, and inviolable. With one ear to his bluegrass roots and the other to jazz liberation, he leads the Unit (featuring brother Wyatt on guitar, Rickie and Ronnie Simpkins on fiddle and bass respectively, and mandolinist Jimmy Gaudreau) through 10 instrumentals, beginning with a radically reimagined version of "Manzanita" (the title track from their 1979 album) and ending with a wild 1993 concert performance of "Sally Goodin," the Unit's long-time finale. Along the way the group cooks up traditional songs and standards by Bill Monroe and Django Reinhardt, all with patient, tasteful intelligence. There's also a serene, stately solo-guitar reading of "An Olde Irish Aire (Danny Boy)" from 1999. Rice calls the unbearably lovely arrangement of "Shenandoah" "a culmination of ideas that come into focus over a long period of time." No description could get closer to the essence of these thrilling, finely calibrated performances. --Roy Kasten