Russian-born guitarist Segal moved to New York as a child, and this is his sixth album for Steeplechase -but his first in this non-chordal bare-bones trio format.

Originally entranced by rock, he moved to jazz because, as he says, ‘I got a little bored with rock music’ and fell for the playing of John Abercrombie and John Scofield. Later, he came across ‘Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall and all the legends’. On this evidence, such a melange of influences still has rock as its strongest ingredient: something New York stars Anderson and Nussbaum were well-equipped to deal with despite never having played with Segal before.

Five of the nine pieces are Segal's; the others are by Monk, Shorter, Jobim and Ellington. So, an eclectic mix, for sure. ‘What If?’ owes more to blues-derived rock than to mainstream jazz, showing what annotator Neil Tesser calls ‘a knife-sharp attack and a five o'clock shadow of fuzz’, Anderson echoing the line and soloing dramatically before Nussbaum turns up the heat. It's the Scofield sound and attack that seems paramount overall, whether in the jagged lines of ‘Art Deco Blues’ or on the more balladic ‘Dream States’ with its ‘echoing’ rock quality, Anderson again the vital second voice. Monk's ‘Ask Me Know’ is a stripped-down version, Segal treating the melody like a join-the-dots diagram before peering satisfyingly into its possibilities. ‘The Big Push’ by Shorter has a shuffle beat and exhibits fusion-ish touches while ‘Creole Love Call’ gets a rather startling, blues-groove reading. BB King would surely have approved.