Jerry Bergonzi is the opposite of a showy player, but on his recent releases, the American's mastery of the tenor sax has overshadowed those he's playing with. This pared-down Hammond B3 organ trio set, recorded in Italy in a single day, is a more rounded set. The saxophonist remains effortlessly in command, but organist Renato Chicco has nailed the sonic fluency of the John Patton style, and drummer Andrea Michelutti's crisp beats deliver cushioned support.

‘Nearly Blue’, the album's title track, accurately describes the song's tweaked blues sequence. But it could also be a descriptive of Bergonzi's poised and perfected style. The song sidles in at a sultry mid-tempo halfway through the album and smoulders to an understated peak. Bergonzi savours every note of the strong, simple theme, balances control with abandon and harmonic twists with phrasing that is just behind the beat. Even his sound is poised between light and shade.

The album opens with two standards and a relaxed, loping cover of John Coltrane's ‘Countdown.’ Here, Bergonzi finds new pathways through the changes, deftly switches to a spritely walking-bass swing and rounds off tumbling lines with two notes of the chord's tonic key. His articulation and melodic flair are at their clearest on the winsome ballad ‘We'll Be Together Again’ and at their most trenchant on ‘Nice Work if You Can Get it’.

The title track is one of three Bergonzi originals on this 10-track set. The American unleashes his John Coltrane on ‘Tectonic Plates’, a modal waltz, and turns lyrical on the sly bossa nova ‘While You Were Out’. The album finishes with a remake of ‘Laura’ capturing the haunting original with dense organ harmonies and the crystal-clear sound of Bergonzi's sax.