Frode Kjekstad first recorded with the American saxophonist Eric Alexander in 2004. That album was called New York Time and featured organist Lonnie Smith. Ten years on, and the Norwegian guitarist's love of organ jazz and NYC burns just as bright on a second set of silky grooves and sultry ballads, this time featuring the ‘A’ list New Yorkers Mike LeDonne and Joe Farnsworth on organ and drums. Kjekstad has forged a personal voice out of all the right influences. Sustained notes sing, octaves dart down the fretboard and fast lines are cleanly delivered with a sharp, plectrum-wielding attack. Here, he is a foil for a master of the hard-bop idiom Eric Alexander, playing the changes in relaxed and imperious form so that each solo has a story to tell. And with LeDonne and Farnsworth laying down smooth grooves with soulful finesse, the album cooks along nicely. The set opens with three well-constructed Kjekstad originals that obliquely reference era classics – a hint of Horace Silver's ‘Juicy Lucy’ in the opener; a snippet of ‘Milestones’ in the modal ‘Malala’. There is a nice recreation of Eddie Harris's ‘Cold Duck Time’, a ballad interpretation of ‘Invitation’ stands out among the four well-chosen standards and the set closes with a hard-grooving shuffle. The album sticks to the script, but the players read their lines with eloquence.