The ex-Trinity Laban, British jazz pianist Tom Hewson follows in the footsteps of both his mentor, the late great jazz pianist John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler in his ongoing relationship with the historic Italian CAM Jazz record company. This is his second album for the label following 2015's Treehouse, a trio formed five years with bassist Calum Gourlay and vibraphonist Lewis Wright that formed part of a Cam Jazz Presents series showcasing upcoming artists. Essence though demonstrates he's outgrown the ‘new artist’ tag. This is a mature and invigorating solo piano set in which, besides mostly originals, Hewson pays homage to JT with a version of ‘Summer’ from his CAM album Phases that couldn't be considered at all slavish. His mentor's enigmatic and poetic, reflective qualities contrast with Hewson's more extroverted, full-bloodied harmonic pianisms, that nevertheless reveal intriguing nuances. Hewson's tribute to Taylor's erstwhile colleague Kenny Wheeler is a version of the trumpeter-composer's Bill Evanslike ‘Consolation’ and it makes for a gripping four minutes or so. For his original compositions, Hewson's solid percussive anchorage and fluid classical music piano orchestrations are sometimes close in spirit to Gwilym Simcock's work on solo piano. Elsewhere the exhilarating ‘Major Malfunction’ with a bluesy funk groove that seems to cross Charles Lloyd-era Keith Jarrett with Abdullah Ibrahim, contrasts with the spatial minimalism of ‘Koyasan’; elsewhere Hewson's flintily romantic theme on the title-track recalls Bill Evans. Solo piano jazz is quite an undertaking and heightened audience expectations are par for the course. But Hewson on Essence shows he's entirely up to the task.