The trombonist Nick Adema wrote the compositions for his second album (following DemiLAN, released in 2021) as a musical commentary on the grieving process that followed his mother’s recent passing in the challenging context of living away from his native Canada in the city of Amsterdam.

But Urban Chaos is not quite the sombre or edgy affair the title or the subject matter might imply; there’s a high-spirited collective jazz energy at its centre and the ensemble notably features a familiar name: the eloquent Brooklyn-based saxophonist Noah Preminger as well as including a string quartet, though sparingly used. Breezily melancholy-tinged folkish, sensitively-arranged pieces shift to more contemporary-slanted groove-based tunes among them ‘Fracture’ and the engaging zigzag-y avant-fusion of ‘Y-Factor’.

There are persuasive contributions from less familiar names, especially Azubike Onwuka on slinky funk-jazz electric bass, Joy Shechter’s lyrical piano/Rhodes and Ante Medic’s understated flamenco-inflected guitar on the folk-y ‘Doglio’, which also features the leader’s impassioned vocal-like ’bone.

On this evidence, Adema seems to be quickly finding his feet as a contemporary jazz ensemble leader.