Former BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year David Bowden also plays bass on the limpidly beautiful, locally nostalgic folk-jazz of the Fergus McCreadie Trio’s Turas (2018) part of a strong and supportive Glasgow scene. Being Mezcla’s bandleader means shifting between African and Latin modes in a single song, as when Cuban brass barges through the bustling polyrhythms of ‘Sam’s Tune’, or tough West African sax gives jump-dance lift-off to the mellow melodic sweep of ‘Auckland Hill’. This is a dance band with a penchant for ballads, as ‘Knockan Crag’’s widescreen highland noir pauses for reflection, or ‘Winter Walk’ settles into shadowy slide-guitar and dreamy keyboards. Bowden’s multi-cultural versatility, which has included study in Ghana - a country with considerable impact on new UK jazz, from Vula Viel to Dinosaur’s Corrie Dick – maintains mild intrigue. But like Snarky Puppy (a profound influence on another Glasgow art-dancehall band, Fat-Suit), this septet’s size and range requires sectional business, sometimes at the expense of sustained mood.