Contemporary jazz bassist Gerald Veasley sees music as a pursuit that involves a combination of strategy, quick thinking and even a bit of blind faith, not unlike the game of chess. “There’s a multiplicity of decision making in the game of chess, and there are consequences to every action,” says Veasley. “In a lot of ways, making music is like that too. There are so many choices, especially in jazz, where the situation is never the same twice. That’s always exciting to me. You’re creating new scenarios at every turn…That’s what drew me to this kind of music in the first place – the idea that it was always fresh, there was always an opportunity and a new challenge.” That same combination of challenges and opportunities is at the heart of Veasley’s Your Move, the latest – and perhaps most innovative and audacious – maneuver in the game that he’s been playing since his early days in his native Philadelphia. But any good game involves more than one player, and Veasley has a couple collaborators on hand that make Your Move an intriguing gambit. Guitarist Chuck Loeb steps in as a formidable session player/producer and author or co-author of several tracks. Saxophonist and longtime Veasley band member Chris Farr also shares a few song credits.