Outside, the freezing desert night. This other night inside grows warm, kindling. Let the landscape be covered with thorny crust. We have a soft garden in here. The continents blasted, cities and little towns, everything become a scorched, blackened ball. The news we hear is full of grief for that future, but the real news inside here is there's no news at all. Poet Rumi	Melford's new acoustic quintet, The Tent, includes trumpeter Cuong Vu, reed player Chris Speed, Stomu Takeishi on electric and acoustic bass, drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee, and Melford herself on both piano and harmonium (and occasional vocals). Working with an acoustic pallete featuring the unique colors and textures created by these individual musicians, Melford encompasses influences from world music (including material she studied in India), contemporary classical, and jazz. In 2004, the quintet released its debut CD, Where the Two Worlds Touch on Arabesque. "The band Melford has fashioned, from the musicians she worked with, understand what she wants to say and, in doing so, extends the depth of her compositions into illuminating works," wrote Jerry D'Souza in AllAboutJazz.com. "This quintet...beautifully captures the lyric melancholy and spiritual granduer of her multifacted compositions," wrote Ed Hazell in Jazziz magazine.