While Michael Brown and Ferguson continue to grab the headlines, the case of Ochion Jewell should not go unnoticed. A victim of police brutality in New York – he was beaten and framed for drug possession by plain clothes policemen in Bed-Stuy, but, crucially reached an out of court settlement with his adversaries. The Appalachian-born Californiaeducated saxophonist has written VOLK as a series of four suites that draw explicitly on traditional music from around the world. Spanish, Middle Eastern, Ghanaian, Finnish, Scottish, Ukrainian and Appalachian vocabularies are all deployed. In the hands of a lesser musician, and above all, a lesser band, the results could have been as middling as incoherent. But Jewell has both arranged traditional songs in interesting ways and penned a number of accomplished original works, whether they are based on Andalusian pentachord music or Ewe drumming, with a fair degree of lateral thinking, often breaking the band right down to no more than two or three instruments to really let the sounds both unsettle and soothe. This stripped-down, stillof-the night ambiance combines effectively with some of the softer strains of the leader's horn to produce a suite that often has the glistening, tremulous beauty of the music of Charles Lloyd. As one might expect given the circumstances that framed Jewell's life prior to the recording there is a predominantly sombre mood to the work, yet there is also a quiet strength, dignity and distinct sense of resolve.