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

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.”