Billy Drummond last released an album under his own name on the Criss Cross label in 1996 – Dubai featured Walt Weiskopf and a young Chris Potter on tenor sax. Since then, the American’s long list of credits ranges from Archie Shepp and Andrew Hill to Joe Lovano and Hank Jones. And the album’s title track marks the five years Drummond spent working with Carla Bley – that gig started in 2003, but ‘Valse Sinistre’ comes from Bley’s 1981 album Social Studies, which featured tuba and euphonium among its five-piece brass.

Impressively, Drummond captures the contours of Bley’s village-band aesthetic through the sonics of a feisty, contemporary mainstream, sax-and-rhythm quartet. Drummond’s style is rooted in Tony Williams’ work – the album closer ‘Lawra’ was composed by the late drummer – and here explosive cymbals flesh out texture and drive the band. Bassist Dezron Douglas is on form in the holding role, pianist Micah Thomas moves smoothly from swing to the avant garde and saxophonist Dayna Stephens digs deep into each cut.

Covers of Jackie McLean’s ‘Little Melonae’ and Grachan Moncur’s ‘Frankenstein’ confirm roots in Blue Note’s 1960s left-field; ‘Never Ends’, written by Thomas, is bucolic and features soprano sax; and the gorgeous arrangement of the ballad ‘Laura’ was pre-composed. Elsewhere, the leader’s ‘Changes for Trane and Monk’ delivers angularity and drive at speed and ‘Reconfirmed’ is a piano trio workout. The beautifully crafted ‘Clara's Room’, the album’s penultimate track, pays homage to its composer, pianist Frank Kimbrough, a close colleague and friend of Drummond's, who recently died. Top album.