Brian Landrus, the Brooklyn-based multi-reeds virtuoso, not only favours deep-register instruments like bass clarinets and bass flutes, but musical ventures with deep backstories too – like the emotional and autobiographical themes that drove his last release, For Now, and the commitment to protecting the world's endangered species that now spurs Red List. Landrus devotes this album to music in their honour, explored alongside a band of A-list jazz luminaries including pianist Geoffrey Keezer, trombonist Ryan Keberle, guitarist Nir Felder, and drummer Rudy Royston.

The lineup ensures plenty of powerful soloing, like Keezer's cleanly-phrased, rhythmically audacious breaks on 'Canopy of Trees', or his rocking Hammond surge on the closing 'Javan Rhino'; there's plenty of lyrical muscularity from trombonist Keberle, and creative fusions of Methenyesque textures and laid-back lyricism from Nir Felder. Some of the most atmospheric pieces here are the loosest ones - like 'Bwindi Forest', with its floating flutes-and-horns interplay over Royston's rolling mallet-patterns, or the warm deep-flute sway and Corey King's airy vocal preceding subtle flute/trombone exchanges on 'The Distant Deeps'.

There are also delicately expressive unaccompanied vignettes, like Landrus' bass clarinet meditations on 'Giant Panda' or the fluttering 'Mariana Dove'. Sometimes the leader's long career as a go-to reeds specialist for pop sessions seems to draw him into rather anonymous, soul-funky tunes like the opener 'Canopy of Trees', or the title track once its hypnotic synth-guitar intro is displaced by a chugging drivetime-radio hook. But there's plenty of fine playing here, and Landrus' devotion to conservation, both ethically and practically, is clearly a guiding light in his life.