While young Brit players go after the rock-edged and explore innovation, jazz of a swinging, relatively mainstream kind, often hard-bop based, is still the favoured home turf for young Americans. It's a wild generalisation, of course, but made in order to draw a further distinction: that often the product from across the pond can be lacklustre music, hidebound by the tradition; but, when it works, it's an absolute joy. Which is the case with this debut album from trumpeter Bruce Harris. His sign-off at the end of the final track, his own ‘So Near, So Far’ is to throw in a quote from Rodgers and Hart's ‘Manhattan’ – you don't get more ‘traditional’ than that. And it's preceded by lovely readings of Harold Arlen's ‘Ill Wind’, Horace Silver's ‘Mr Blakey’ and Bud Powell's ‘Una Noche Con Francis’, tunes with heads, and solos, and fours traded. Not a rock lick in sight, not a hip hop beat within hearing. Even Prince's ‘Do U’ Lie?’ is a swinging 6/8, its graceful theme dancing in Harris's muted horn as if it might have come from an oak-lined salon within the Algonquin. But there are no cobwebs here – all is swept clean and fresh by the energy and delight that Harris and his fellow players bring to the party. The saxophones are used in rotation, between one and three to a track, with some exceptionally fine work from Basile on bari. The rhythm team rolls along in relaxed fashion, the epitome of stress-free, and Harris' light touch and breezy style – almost vocal in his phrasing and bends on ‘Ill Wind’, punchy and no-nonsense on his opener, ‘Ask Questions’ – achieves command without being domineering. A highly accomplished debut from a man worth watching.