Donald Brown follows the classic Jazz Messengers recipe of strong horns, tight grooves and well-crafted arrangements and tweaks it with a nod to McCoy Tyner and the occasional left-field flourish. First track ‘Bye Ya’ opens with sparse, rhythmic high note piano and Robert Hurst’s out of time bass, ‘Fly With the Wind’ closely follows the Tyner original and ‘The Innocent Young Lovers’ is a gentle bossa made softer by added flute and guitar. Elsewhere ‘Just One of Those Things’ builds in steps and there’s a soul-drenched ‘Born to be Blue’, bookended by old-geezer dialogue.

Brown is more power behind the throne than lead voice, and both drummers stay fairly strictly within style. But the dream-team front line play with an eye for detail that matches the charts, and make it a consistently satisfying release. Kenny Garrett is at his acid best, Wallace Roney and Ravi Coltrane deal strong emotions with unflagging fire and focus, and you could build the Empire State on the foundations of Robert Hurst’s superb double bass.