The wonderfully-named Gregory Groover delights us here with his second album, which is also his debut for the prestigious Criss Cross imprint. The ebullient Bostonian brings his clear, romantically breathy tone to front a line-up of New York’s eminent hipsters in a programme of original compositions that, like those of his friend and mentor Walter Smith III, embrace current rhythmic innovations while retaining a generous melodic accessibility. Longtime Smith associate Matthew Stevens contributes his neatly articulated guitar lines on ‘Bygone Towers’ in solo and unison and leaves most of the comping to Parks: Joel Ross evokes the spirit of Bobby Hutcherson with his fluent pared-down two-mallet attack, and the rhythm section are as pliant, responsive and engaged as you could wish for.

Groover himself has all the hip harmonic language at his fingertips but isn’t afraid to rip out a blues lick when occasion demands. ‘May All Your Storms Be Weathered’ has all the feelgood folksy wistfulness the title suggests: ‘Joy’ sounds unabashedly joyous: ‘Loveabye’ pulls constantly towards a rewarding resolution.

There’s not a lot of grit here: ‘Ambivalence’ doesn’t sound especially ambivalent, not is ‘Cactus Lullabye’ notably spiky. But we don’t need grit all the time, and with soloists of the calibre of Ross and Parks playing over the mighty Marcus Gilmore, there is plenty of substance to be found, the tunes are beautifully put together, and the execution is never less than immaculate.