Pianist-composer Andrew Hill made a string of brilliant albums for Blue Note from the 1960s to the 1980s, with releases on Steeplechase and Soul Note in between. This fine 2002 set was his second for Palmetto (following the excellent Dusk) and served notice of his gift for big band music. His sextet was augmented by a 10-piece horn section that yielded a vividly rich canvas of sound, full of low end sensuality thanks to the presence of tuba, three trombones, baritone saxophone and bass clarinet.

The music has all the attention to detail and off-centre quirks that defined Hill’s classic albums such as Point Of Departure insofar as the songs unfold with a delicious rhythmic looseness and shifting tonality that makes time and key hard to pin down, though the Ellington-Ra resonances are clear at times. Hill plays several beautiful solo passages where his touch, in turns svelte and spiky, is a delight. Yet this is also one of the essential orchestral recordings of the millennium, with the quality of the rhythm section alone – Nasheet Waits and Scott Colley are imperious – shining through. There are highlights aplenty but ‘New Pinocchio’ is a gem of wit and whimsy. Two decades after its release A Beautiful Day wears its title very well.