The ego of the average musician can ensure a steady stream of albums as leader regardless of whether the time might be right or not. Not Andrew McCormack though, who releases his first studio album as leader since the very promising 2006 debut Telescope. In the meantime McCormack has been developing his contemporary music composition skills with concert commissions under the mentorship of iconoclastic contemporary composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, as well as broadening his experience on the international and domestic jazz scene in duo with fellow late-1990s Tomorrow's Warrior Jason Yarde (a new album also reviewed here runs concurrent with this one) and as a dedicated long-term member of the bands of Denys Baptiste and Kyle Eastwood among others. But his relocation to New York last year signalled McCormack's intentions to focus on his work as a jazz pianist, specifically the piano trio format. The aerial shot of Manhattan's famous skyline on the cover also reflects the Big Apple's influence on this recording but it's a kind of cliché that doesn't at all extend to this set of new music. While too many jazz artists today seem to value complexity for for its own sake, McCormack gets over the essence of what he wants to communicate effectively using simple thematic devices (informed by classical music such as Stravinsky as well as jazz) that have an unconscious presence throughout the individual soloing. Through a set of originals, aside from a version of Thelonious Monk's ‘Pannonica’, McCormack shifts intelligently and intuitively between reflections and a temperature-rising swing feel. His Brooklyn-based trio bring an understated depth to the recording and McCormack's writing and quiet fire improvisation nods to the classic post-bop chamber piano trio lineage from Bill Evans through to Brad Mehldau, without becoming in the least derivative.