The young trumpeter maintains the impressive momentum he has generated since 2006’s The Fundamentals with an album that creatively networks a classic 1970s fusion sound and a post-hip hop electronic sensibility to good effect. In many ways the reprise of Norman Connors’ seminal ‘Love From The Sun’ is the clef de voute of the programme. Featuring a swish turn by the vocalist who graced the original, Dee Dee Bridgewater, the song retains its ethereal, almost dawn-of-time ambiance, but benefits from a discreetly woven additional fabric of samples and digital flux. It’s an astute modernisation rather than easy vulgarisation. Croker’s dual affinity with contemporary technology as well as the acoustic vocabulary of jazz has yielded a record in which production, composition and improvisation all sit in good balance, and the presence of the studio and the editing suite is as strong as that of the ‘live room’. Furthermore, Croker’s judicious use of a wahwah pedal on his horn injects a sassy, funky energy into both the solos and soulful themes on arrangements that draw a coherent line between several generations of groove merchants: think Donald Byrd circa Places And Spaces, Eddie Henderson and Roy Hargrove’s R.H Factor.

A worthwhile new chapter in the story of great black music for head, heart and feet.