Since winding-up his hugely successful New Conception of Jazz group a couple of years ago, Wesseltoft has been assiduously developing the art of the solo concert. These have been in the form of spontaneous improvisations rather than pre-written material whose destiny is guided by his infallible melodic and harmonic imagination. In a sense they were the logical continuum of the New Conception, albeit without the band, since the New Conception was essentially spontaneous conceptions whose mood and intensity was informed by the audience – the more responsive the audience the greater heights the new conception reached. With his previous two solo albums, Wesseltoft studiously avoided the standards repertoire, creating his own songs and moods. Here, he turns to the standards repertoire and songs he grew up with and but never felt ready to put out his own versions to compete with the likes of – as he says – Bill Evans, Erroll Garner, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson and Ray Charles. But finally he felt his approach to pieces like ‘Darn that Dream’, ‘My Foolish Heart’, ‘How High the Moon’ and six others were ready to go before the public. So what emerges is a mature statement by a mature artist who in many ways has spent a lifetime preparing for this moment. It was worth the wait; Wesseltoft respects the primacy of melody and the way it can weave a spell, which he does here – his versions of ‘We'll be Together Again’ and ‘Like Someone in Love’ reveal what a great jazz artist he is.