Marcus Miller has an eponymously titled track dedicated to him; and Lalo Schifrin wrote a memorable soundtrack in the 1970s for the film Enter the Dragon in which he played the starring role. The gifted young pianist Christian Sands is the latest jazz composer to pay his tributes to the 1970s cult martial arts actor Bruce Lee. Be Water is Sands' third for Mack Avenue, the title lifted from a quote by Lee: “Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle… Be water, my friend.” Sands echoes Lee's philosophy largely by way of his versatile instrumental and pan-idiomatic arrangements. Recognised as a child prodigy, Sands came under the spotlight for his dazzling solos in 2013 while performing in Christian McBride's band. He's a highly eloquent pianist who can swing in his sleep. But as a composer he has a contemporary approach and, as with Bruce Lee's ‘water’ metaphor, he reshapes his piano playing according to the vessel: highlights include the inventively latin-vamp-ish ‘Sonar’ and the title track with its funky electric keys-led groove featuring Marcus Strickland's R&B-inflected tenor solo and a cookin' rhythm section of Clarence Penn and Yasushi Nakamura that are equally brawny all through the recording. On ‘Crash’ he seamlessly crosses the orchestral-like textures of his hero Errol Garner with the neo-soulful-ness of Robert Glasper and ‘Stream’ is a pianistic tour-de-force. Only a largely forgettable chamber string quartet-accompanied reprise of ‘Be Water’ towards the end and an overlong and rather saccharine ballad ‘Still’ suggest the concept has become a little overstretched by then. Thankfully, the striking jazz ensemble work throughout the recording more than compensates.