You’ll recall that McCreadie came second to Xhosa Cole in that BBC Young Jazz Musician contest, way back before the pandemic, and his debut album (Cairn) was successful and even got a nomination in our Albums Of The Year 2021 poll. Which almost makes a review seem redundant, but it’s worth noting that the new release does represent an advance on its predecessor, and several of these trio tracks carry quite a punch. It’s still true that the inspiration of Scottish traditional music is discernable in the themes, but the execution is heavily jazz-influenced. Forest Floor (no relation to the near similarly- titled Charles Lloyd classic) also conjures visual images through its individual track-titles, but the nature-loving undercurrent wouldn’t necessarily be identifiable without the titles. Solos by Bowden and Henderson are relatively few and far between, but they contribute mightily to the overall impact of this performance. As such, McCreadie has put sufficient space between himself and the meanderings of an average piano trio record, and it’d be interesting to see how he would integrate horns into his musical vision.