Having distinguished himself through several acclaimed releases as leader and duo partner to Cuban piano legend Gonzalo Rubalcaba, French alto saxophonist Pierrick Pédron takes on the monumental challenge of interpreting one of Ornette Coleman’s landmark sessions. The Shape Of Jazz To Come helped to make 1959 an annus mirabilis in jazz and the six-track set remains a highpoint of his composing as well as an exemplar of small group chemistry.

Rather than maintain the piano-less configuration in which Coleman and Cherry were so brilliantly simpatico Pédron opts for a piano-full quartet with the impressive Carl-Henri Morriset in the chair, and the sonic landscape alters significantly. The chordal support takes the songs towards a more classic lexicon of modern jazz but the uniquely tricksy nature of Ornette’s melodies nonetheless shines through. And the creative highpoints of the work see Pédron, whose playing is imbued with a deep sensuality and bluesy langour, tease out a romanticism that is not always associated with Ornette, who, lest we forget, also covered ‘Embraceable You’, as did one of his role models Charlie Parker.