Bill Stewart’s classy mix of supple brushwork, strong pulse and polyrhythmic rumble has made him drummer of choice for the likes of Pat Metheny, Joe Lovano and the late Michael Brecker. Yet this sax and rhythm quartet is only the third album he has recorded under his own name – the first, recorded in 1990, featured Lovano and had Dave Holland on bass. As you would expect, each track is something of an immaculate conception. Stewart prods and pokes at the beat over bassist Ben Street’s steady time. And Bill Carrothers is a fluent pianist with a lovely touch and a lexicon of voicings up his sleeve to make his solos emotionally focused gems. Seamus Blake is an equally tight fit, playing supple, closely articulated lines with a cool, slightly dry tone. And though Stewart avoids emotional extremes – a clean recording sound doesn’t help – silky grooves and bags of detail compensate. The only cover on the album, a gentle, bittersweet reading of the Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz ballad ‘Dancing in the Dark’, is a highlight left to the final track. The remaining 10 compositions are well-worked, loose-limbed Stewart originals with strong narrative signposts. Opener ‘Paris Lope’ features Carrothers’ Scriabin-like boulevard-conjuring piano, there is a tricky Ornette Colemanish blues called ‘Tincture’ and the title track builds a nice head of steam over Stewart’s brittle elliptic beats. A mostly consistent album that rarely hits the heights.