The South Korean former pop singer and Berklee-graduated big-band composer Jihye Lee confirmed how eloquently she could balance fast-moving postbop rhythm-switches and Gil Evans-reminiscent textural clouds on 2021’s terrific Daring Mind. Its successor, Infinite Connections, is rhythmically and improvisationally bolder still, with Lee’s classy lineup augmented here by star trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, and the recording once again co-produced by eclectic orchestral maestro Darcy James Argue.

Infinite Connections invokes family crises and crossroads for Lee, inspired by the life-story of her grandmother, who passed through an orphaned childhood to teenage marriage, life under 1950s Korean patriarchal strictures, and troubled last years - but it also celebrates Lee’s own triumphant journey toward finding her own voice and identity. The pieces are introduced by traditional Korean rhythms (a key role for Snarky Puppy percussionist Keita Ogawa) but quickly shift into fast-changing jazz guises.

The opening ‘Surrender’ finds Akinmusire murmuring and probing over a quietly sonorous drum pattern before surging horn riffs push him toward longer lines and then rocketing double-time figures amid breezily coaxing flutes. ‘We Are All From The Same Stream’ mixes sharply punctuated high-register riffing and graceful solos from trombonist Alan Ferber and tenorist Jason Rigby; ‘Born In 1935’ delicately develops ethereal chordal sways to a dramatic crescendo to release an exquisite alto-sax rhapsody from Maria Schneider stalwart Dave Pietro; while Akinmusire’s register-vaulting second solo spot is a standout of the album on the ghostly, echoing ‘You Are My Universe’. It’s beautiful, free-spirited music.