The son of an Egyptian mother and Moroccan father, Roy Assaf, 30, is yet another highly gifted, classically trained musician to come to New York via Israel and then Berklee. After earning his bachelor's degree there, he went on to the Manhattan School of Music for his master's. Since then, he's won an astonishing number of awards including an ASCAP young jazz composer, a Downbeat student award for outstanding performance, and an equally prestigious one for best jazz arrangement. All this – and more – after being blessed with Danilo Pérez, Kenny Barron and finally Jason Moran as teachers. He has appeared on some 20 CDs as a sideman and is currently a key member of the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars.

His JLP debut, produced by bassist John Lee (which means that Reuben Rogers gets top priority for woody sound recording quality) has 11 tracks of far from obvious choice compositions by nine of (presumably) his favourite pianists. These include Basie, Monk, Peterson, Tyner, Hancock, Corea, Jarrett, Barron and Pérez with the underrated hard bopper Walter Davis Jr. being the only left-field choice. The motivation behind these tributes isn't stated, but Assaf is such a brilliant player that he's able to respect the various varied styles without ever trying to copy. He gets sterling support throughout from Rogers and Hutchinson. In the middle of all these trio tracks, from out of the blue comes an enormous brass section backing Eric Alexander and Greg Gisbert on the Tyner track, ‘Fly With the Wind’ followed by a smaller line-up behind the Hancock title ‘Textiles’ featuring Roy Hargrove. They must have cost a bomb. A shame that the soloists didn't stay and play on some other tracks. Assaf is very much a pianist's pianist.