The words classy and eloquent immediately spring to mind when you listen to the 39-year-old pianist Andrew McCormack. Having graduated from Tomorrow's Warriors and taken up impressive sideman roles in the Denys Baptiste quartet and J-Life, McCormack has gone on to impress as a leader with his two acoustic piano trio albums to date and in intimate chamber jazz duo with saxophonist Jason Yarde. The new recording Graviton however heads off in an entirely unexpected direction. Emerging from the latter period of his three-year residence in New York which ended at the end of 2016, Graviton highlights McCormack's skill at writing extended composition as much as it does piano improvisation, and has more in common with minimalism, rock and contemporary grooves than the acoustic jazz tradition. It's vocal-based too, and the formidable 2015 Mercury-nominated vocalist Eska contributes both wordless scat – at these moments the band is reminiscent of pianist Robert Mitchell's Panacea – as well as song-based material. The other personnel are the Norwegian-born Phronesis drummer Anton Eger, the highflying young saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and the bassist Rob Mullarkey. McCormack recalls Brad Mehldau's Largo and Highway Rider periods on the opener ‘Breathe’ but otherwise inspiration comes from the jazz piano school of a new generation, namely the post-Spotify eclecticism of the Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan. Other highlights include the catchy ‘Kalamata’ that sounds like a cross between Sly and the Family Stone, Steve Reich and Scritti Politti, the latter a favourite left-leaning jazzy soul-pop band formerly covered by Miles Davis, and the excellent ‘Look Up’ that sounds like an update on Return to Forever. There are also some engaging individual performances, such as Shabaka Hutchings on the Polar Bear-ish ‘Fellowship’. Though the musicians sound just a little too hemmed in by the arrangements at times, the forthcoming ‘live’ workouts should allow McCormack's unique music to breathe a bit more.