When Saft and his trio went into the recording studios in 2014 to record The New Standard its success was realised more in terms of future potential than the realisation of each performance in the here and now. We now know that it was recorded in something around three hours, which in today's terms is a remarkably short time to produce an album, which perhaps explains this. Subsequently, with road-time under their belts, they have developed a genuine group chemistry – a mixture of learned and instinctive responses to improvisation that adds depth to the creative moment, something that's often referred to as mutual empathy. Using the simplest of thematic and harmonic material, they get into some serious grooves that have the joy and uplifting feel much jazz aspires to, but seldom achieves. For example, on pieces like ‘Ten Nights’ or ‘The Barrier’, Saft's rootless chords permit a level of subtle group interaction and unity of purpose that contributes to richly satisfying performances that assume greater meaning with each successive hearing. They are benchmarks whereby terms like ‘swinging’ or ‘in the pocket’ in the contemporary sense can be measured – so often today there's plenty of smoke but very little fire. Here the process is reversed, plenty of heat and very little smoke, an object lesson in less-is-more, of knowing exactly what to leave out, rather than put into the music. Iggy Pop makes a surprise appearance on three tracks, his vocals in the best Leonard Cohen/Bob Dylan/Lou Reed tradition contributing to the overall arc of an album that just keeps growing on you.