Now there’s a perverse title if you like. The Jonathan Silk Big Band’s sound isn’t quite as smooth as its leader’s name but this debut still boasts only highly sophisticated sonorities: occasionally embattled, not frightened of lifting the hood and showing the workings of the engine beneath maybe, but there’s nothing uncouth about it. But clearly Silk – recently graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire and obviously with a big future ahead of him – enjoys playing games with names: the first two tracks here are titled ‘Suite for B.B. – Part II’ and ‘Suite for B.B. – Part III’, with no sign of Part I anywhere. No matter, it’s gutsily engaging stuff in a Kenny Wheeler-ish vein, almost all composed by the leader, a drummer who knows how to lead from behind his kit. Recorded live in the Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham last summer, it’s a showcase for a raft of fine soloists as well as Silk’s compositional skills: there’s Percy Purslove as featured soloist on trumpet and flugelhorn, but Joe Wright and Colin Mills show themselves no slouches on ‘J.W.T.S.’.