Recorded a week after Dave Brubeck’s death, Quartette Humaine is ostensibly a tribute to the late pianist. But it’s a tribute in name rather than style: Sanborn’s Hank Crawford-style blues ’n’ funk couldn’t be further from Paul Desmond’s precision. James, though, obviously owes much to Brubeck, not least in their shared willingness to engage with the popular and accessible. However, about the only track to have a Brubeck-like sound is ‘Follow Me’ with its quasi-classical feel that echoes ‘Blue Rondo A La Turk’. Otherwise the protagonists stick to their trusted comfort zones, with Sanborn taking it down, all blues ’n’ ballady on ‘My Old Flame’, or finding a funky little pocket on the closing stomper ‘Deep In The Weeds’. The most curious thing is, the closer apart, hearing Gadd stick to brushes throughout, although he lays down some striking patterns on the aforementioned ‘Follow Me’. So not quite as ‘smooth’ as you may expect such a combo to be, but as roads go, Quartette Humaine is smack down the middle.