A protége of Jackie McLean, a DownBeat magazine 2019 Rising Star and a performer with Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Cyrus Chestnut, David Murray, Louis Hayes, Mulgrew Miller and Benny Green, bassist/composer Dezron Douglas has a heavy reputation to match his heavy tone. That tone is front and centre on this album of high-octane contemporary quartet jazz, driving the time-shifting swing on ‘Coyoacán’, anchoring the 13/8 figure on the title track, bursting out of the speakers to introduce the portentous modal workout of ‘Luna Moth’.

Emilio Modeste by contrast is a more light-toned, oblique presence on tenor and soprano, sounding a bit like Charles Lloyd on the free-time ballad ‘Jones Beach’, and his grainy, rhythmically off-kilter approach contrasts thrillingly with the muscular bass and drums on ‘More Coffee Please'. George Burton adds a similarly distinctive voice, his impressive chops moderated by his powerful, sometimes eccentric imagination. Bass guitar and vocals provide a potent interlude on ‘Wheeping Birch’ but the rest of the album is pure live acoustic improvisation, driven by Joe Dyson Jnr's assertive drumming and Dezron's’ massive bass that prioritises sound and ideas over speedy ostentation.

Across the whole album, he and his crew present an unapologetically no-holds-barred vision of modern jazz that's entirely contemporary but not in thrall to any current passing fashions. ‘J-Bird’ sounds like an updated version of Sam Rivers’ band circa 1965 with added muscle from a ferocious Dyson and everyone burning in best freebop style, all delivered with a laconic urgency – most tracks come in under four minutes. They’re a tight empathetic unit, able to shift from consonance to dissonance and from free time to funk to ferocious swing without breaking step.

Some listeners might be disappointed by a relative dearth of singable melody but the band's sheer energy and conviction, not to mention their incontrovertible hipness, should go a long way to winning them over.