Get that image of a traditional lederhosen-clad Alpine country dweller with a mountain scene stretched out behind him out of your head right now. This second album release by the accomplished Austrian trombonist Christian Muthspiel and his Yodel Group – formed two years ago out of a commission for the 30th Saalfelden Jazz Festival – might be based on old yodelling songs, but is entirely free from these kind of picture postcard clichés. For a start there’s no actual yodelling; Muthspiel grew up in the middle of this distinctive music culture and his sextet take the melodies from the songs and transform them into something that takes on the improvisational character and post-modern diversity of jazz. Aside from ex-downtown experimental drummer Bobby Previte, the group features Viennese reedsman Gerald Preinfalk, ex-Vienna Art Orchestra trumpeter Matthieu Michel, and French vibraphonist Franck Tortiller, all team players. Gentle choral-like horns, European marching music, cabaret and folk song rub up against textures that recall bluesy New Orleans and Mingus-like polyphony and township, as well as echoes of post-electric jazz via the dreamy impressionism of Weather Report and Miles’ In a Silent Way. It’s an enjoyable cocktail of sounds with collective improvisation as its unifying thread. And not a pair of lederhosen in sight.