Now based in London, Ferris hails originally from Cornwall via Birmingham (the latter also being the home of Stoney Lane Records). This is not his first album - that was 2018’s Alphabets - but it is his first in seven years, and again it features his septet. The coup he’s pulled off this time is the involvement of guitar great Peter Bernstein, who appears on two tracks.

Ferris cites John Taylor and Keith Jarrett as his keyboard role models: both are celebrated here, with the inclusion of the gently swinging ‘Waltz for JT’ (featuring Bernstein’s lovely solo) and the adjoining ‘Keith’. The latter includes some rare moments of dissonance and tension amid the agreeable harmonies of the album as a whole, which purrs along like the proverbial well-oiled machine.

In general, Ferris’ heart seems to be in a slightly earlier era than Taylor/Jarrett. The only non-original in the collection is a version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘If I Loved You’ from the musical Carousel. On tunes like ‘Sticks and Stones’, Ferris’ arranging skill makes the septet sound like a big band. Among the full-band tracks are a couple of brief solo piano excursions that hint of a different kind of album we may hear at some time in the future, in particular the sweetly melancholic ‘18th March 2020’ - its title memorialising the period of lockdown that made such an impact on musicians.