As a member of Alvorada, Andrew Woolf is a leading light in the UK choro scene, choro being a style of music that emerged in Rio towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Brazilian inspirations pepper this debut album from the quintet that Woolf leads too, although Woolf also cites influences from his favourite jazz players, such as Kenny Wheeler, Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell, ‘African grooves, and [his] classical roots’. It makes for a characterful blend, not least on the delightful, light-stepping ‘Paradise’, which stretches with an almost magical effortlessness to over nine minutes in significant part thanks to some inspired solo playing from bandmates Rob Updegraff on guitar and Joe Auckland on trumpet. The soulfully melancholic ‘Twenty Years Ago’ gives bassist Dave Manington a chance to shine, while the title track, named for a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, brings the set to a striking close as it builds from the softest of openings to a refulgent crescendo before falling away again.