This vivid collection of originals, featuring contemporary-jazz luminaries including saxophonist Ben Wendel and much-acclaimed trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, is the leadership debut of Jeremy Dutton, a drummer with a long CV of work with just such cutting-edge younger-generation artists.

Barely into his 20s, Dutton's ears and skills were sharp enough for him to play in Vijay Iyer's rhythmically advanced sextet, and lately on classy Blue Note releases by vibraphonist Joel Ross and pianist James Francies, also two of his bandmates here.

On his first solo flight, the Houston-born New Yorker assembles 12 tracks with a cohesive, chapter-like flow. The first piece's ‘Opening Credits’ emerges on deep, abstractly-resonant hums, and an impressionistic sequence of almost Mike Gibbsian sombre-fanfare long tone harmonies over a free-drums rumble.

An immediate contrast comes with the warm and rolling ‘Waves’, a vehicle for the classic hard-boppish horn embraces of Wendel and Akinmusire and the athletically-nimble trumpet improv of the latter; while the swaying ballad ‘Mirrors’ gracefully foregrounds Mike Moreno's glowing guitar sound, and interweaves it with restrained piano, tenor and vibes. Wendel's tenor expressiveness between lyricism and free-jazz's outer edges dominates the initially wistful ‘Unfolding’, as does Ross's quicksilver fluency, while ‘Truman (Reborn)’ - a tribute to Jim Carrey's 1990s dystopian movie hit The Truman Show - is a restrainedly-thrilling meditation for Wendel's soulful tenor sax, and the restlessly attentive embrace Dutton elicits from his gifted partners. Anyone is Better Than Here occasionally drifts a little, but this is a fine self-released debut from a young artist spreading wings that should take him a long way.