Helena Kay was a few years below me on the jazz course at London’s Guildhall School of Music. Even as a first year we knew she was one to watch and she’s since become one of the most impressive young saxophonists in the country, winning Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year in 2015 and a Peter Whittingham Jazz Award in 2017. On this debut she plays with incredible depth and maturity. She’s never flashy. She never overplays. There’s an overriding sense of good taste and real feeling behind the notes, particularly on the mournful ‘Feijão’ and a slow blues called ‘Perry St’. Charlie Parker’s ‘Kim’, a duo with excellent drummer David Ingamells, opens with the crisp rolls of a New Orleans street beat, stops, starts and then relaxes into fluent bebop. Ferg Ireland adds dancing bass pedals and weaves fleet, melodic solos. An effortless, inventive rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Stardust’, played by Kay alone, sums it all up.