Like the acid-flecked rock which has defined Liverpool for 40 years, Manchester’s empathy for spiritual jazz runs deep. The scene’s current gentle don, Matthew Halsall, guests on this second of five planned annual albums by Wickham, a saxophonist/flautist with still deeper roots in the city, whose recent move from sideman to bandleader gained urgency from surviving throat cancer prior to La Sombra’s 2017 release. A life now split between the UK, Spain and Qatar is also reflected in his Anglo-Spanish band. The carbon-dated familiarity of soul-jazz convention tethers some tracks, the rhythm section’s static modal strolls plus vibes sometimes verging on soporific. Even then, a penetrating piano or flute solo pierces the clichés. When shadows fall on ‘The Mirage’, the slower, darker mood then sets everything in a different light. The Eastern mournfulness of Wickham’s flute leads to midsummer contentment in a contemplative clearing, before he worries at the song, and Halsall’s trumpet solos with clarion sadness. For eight suspended minutes, enlightenment nears. Wickham switches to baritone sax (relearned after his illness) for ‘Barrio 71’, a conga-heavy latin tune more typical of a busily upbeat album, split between 1970s Soho funk and higher ground.