We know that Iverson, since leaving The Bad Plus, has been an expert piano teacher also capable of excellent commentary, both in print and on his website. But who would have thought that, having parlayed an Umbria visit with the Billy Hart Quartet into a commission for their enterprising big-band, he would create a celebration of bebop icon Powell? It's not only the first instance of him writing for such forces, but a new experience to hear him successfully emulating Bud's up-tempo improv on tracks such as ‘Part 2: Continuity’ (based on ‘Cherokee’).

In a multi-faceted approach, Iverson has a whole central section of his suite consisting of a brief intro from the band, with equally brief transitions between four dynamic quintet renditions of Powell material he recorded with horns (‘Bouncing With Bud’, ‘Wail’, ‘Dance Of The Infidels’ and ‘52nd Street Theme’). To reproduce the impact of the originals (done with Fats Navarro and the young Sonny Rollins), Iverson keeps his versions to just over three minutes each on average and, under that constraint, the solos of Jensen and Stephens are as urgent and personal as you would hope.

Other Bud tunes are done with the full band, including the ballad ‘I'll Keep Loving You’ (outof-tempo intro and lead-playing from the wonderful French horn of Hoffer), ‘Un Poco Loco’ and ‘Tempus Fugit’, inspired by its horn-led recording from Miles Davis. A pity they didn't also try ‘Budo/Hallucinations’ (though Miles' melody wasn't identical to Powell's), and I would love to have had a big-band reading of ‘Glass Enclosure’.

There are passing allusions to other recognisable Powell material in Iverson's written contributions and, whereas he describes some of these as “relatively straight-up band charts”, there are engagingly quirky ideas elsewhere (for instance, in parts of ‘Nobile Paradiso’) and a bit of collective improv by the orchestra. But the whole thing is brought to life by the contributions of the US quintet, including Street and the discreetly brilliant Nash. Despite occasional rough moments due to recording live, this is something to be savoured almost as much as Powell himself – which is the best outcome of a tribute project.