The sound of the trumpet/tenor front line comes with a certain amount of baggage since it virtually the defined sound of contemporary modern jazz circa mid-1950s to mid-1960s – Miles/Coltrane, Clifford Brown/Sonny Rollins, Lee Morgan/Wayne Shorter, Blue Mitchell/Junior Cook and so on. Sounds great on those treasured albums from back in the day, but 60 years on the sound has become something of a cliché, greeted with a certain amount of eye-rolling and comments like, “Great, how original, who’d of thought of doing that.” Consequently, one of the challenges for the contemporary jazz composer/arranger who chooses to use this combination is to somehow avoid ending up with the date-stamped sound that automatically puts you in competition with the heroes of the past where there's only one winner. To his great credit, bassist Jasper Høiby has successfully navigated his band around this potential pitfall with some clever/crafty writing that, while sounding fresh, is also smart and original.

From the opening track ‘Folk Song’ he succeeds in drawing you into an album experience – there's a compositional arc to the track sequencing where each composition's destiny seems to lead you to the next track and the next. Before you know it you’re on track ten, ‘Pacific Island’, reflecting on what a pleasing performance this nicely-balanced quintet has created – no egos, everyone doing what the music requires to bring it alive with engaging work from Jurd, Lockhart and Barry.