Tenor saxophonist Hitomi Oba's music dances effortlessly between the uncompromising energy of jazz and the refinement of chamber music. Her meticulously crafted melodies snake around angular grooves, with twists and turns and dramatic shifts that surprise from one moment to the nextall anchored by her fierce saxophone playing. Oba is a faculty member at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and recently completed commissions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and American Composers Orchestra.