No violinist could fully recapture the exultant genius that was Stéphane Grappelli, but tonally at least, Ben Powell comes darn close on this album. And that alone is a remarkable achievement by a young Cheltenhamborn (Berklee-trained) musician raised a long way from pre-war France both in time and distance. Being the product of another country and another era, it is only right that the first three of these ten tracks should reflect his approach to jazz of the present day. A tender ballad, ‘Judith’, a modular exercise in two parts, ‘New Street’, and ‘Monk 4 Strings’, a pastiche of Monk's compositional style, are neat but unremarkable, with pianist Unno the most stylish and swinging soloist.

The trio tracks are a different matter. Backed by Gary Burton, Julian Lage (and occasionally Drobka on brushes), Powell opens up, dons his figurative beret and begins to express himself in the sweetly decorative, lavishly lyrical manner beloved of Hot Club de France fans. Tracks like ‘La Chanson des Rues’ and ‘Gary’ (for Burton) capture that ambience pretty well. Not until Powell's blues solo develops on ‘Swingin’ for Stéphane' does it become apparent that someone contemporary is playing. Lage plays some nifty rhythm guitar and reveals a surprisingly strong affinity with Django Reindhardt on ‘What is This Thing Called Love’, and vocalist Linda Calise slips into her Édith Piaf outfit for the latter's classic ‘La Vie en Rose’, wrapping up a classy tribute to an age of near-forgotten glories.