"The hardest thing about improvising should be saying the first word or playing the first note. If you're really an improviser, one who has a moral imperative not to step on the other guy's toes, not to contradict, not to leave somebody hanging, but to really make sure that the group is 'one for all and all for one', the hardest thing is not to respond. It's being the one to pull that first thing out of the air."

So says Skip Heller, the talented Philly-born jazz guitarist, about the spirit of music. Improvisation has always been at the core of Heller's playing and he's been favorably compared with guys like Frank Zappa and John Zorn.

It's heady stuff. Despite a growing familiarity from the jazz community and a moderate amount of fame, Skip remains committed to that innovative sound that only comes from people playing together. These are musical conversations and like the best real conversations, the other guy isn't just waiting for his turn to speak.

His latest disc, Fake Book, stays true to some of the elements that made last year's Homegoing so memorable. Skip has taken songs that are not only memorable but also personally important to him and covered them with a talented group of hot players like Bob Drasin on sax, clarinet and flute and John Wicks on drums. Centering everybody is Seattle's Joe Doria on Hammond organ, filtering everybody through a rich curtain of old Prestige and Blue Note records.

Ensuring the improv sound is the fact that everything was recorded in a single afternoon in Doria's basement studio. It's a beautiful record, the perfect accompaniment to a rainy Sunday afternoon. Crackling with energy, much of it sounds like the lost soundtrack to an old Steve McQueen movie, flickering with sixties cool.

That's a real compliment to the musicianship, too. Skip, bless his talented fingers and trivia-filled brain, picks some really weird songs to cover. There are songs you might expect, like a smooth version of the late Les Baxter's "Sophisticated Savage", or a finger-popper like Duke Ellington's "Just Squeeze Me".

That said, Skip has also picked songs right out of the ether, like "Sometimes It Snows In April"—composed by Prince for the abysmal film Under The Cherry Moon. There's a Dylan cover, too—"The Man in Me," exposes some of Heller's beat-flavored influences.

Riffing that soundtrack sound is easy on a smoky version of "The Theme from Chinatown", and Heller really shines on a sharp, short cover of Thelonious Monk's "Monk's Mood". Skip's Philadelphia jazz club roots come back to the forefront in "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Cold Duck Time".

Forged in Philly's clubs, smoked through a curtain of L.A. haze, and fired up in a Seattle basement, Fake Book is how the world sounds in Skip Heller's brain—and it's cool. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.