Phil Meadows is a young Bolton-born jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger with big ideas. Only two years out of London's Trinity Laban, Meadows has been developing over the past18 months his ambition of a commissioning/for hire ensemble modelled on the Dutch Metropole Orchestra with the funds received from his Peter Whittingham Jazz Award. Following its premiere at a packed Kings Place Hall 2 late last year, Meadows releases on CD his work, titled Lifecycles. His direct approach to composition and arrangement using a versatile contemporary palette of sound and instrumentation, entirely matches his high ambitions. Strongly echoing Matthew Herbert Big Band and Cinematic Orchestra with its soaring melodies (a few of them sung by the upcoming vocalist and violinist Alice Zawadzki) sweeping cosmic jazz-ish strings and additional harp. Meadows also develops more intricate strings textures inspired by contemporary classical music as well as post-Gil Evans New York orchestra composers Maria Schneider and Darcy James Argue, while contrasting this with a Philip Glass-ish minimalism at times. In the thick of the action is Meadow's quintet (he released an impressive debut in 2013 Engines of Creation) that's made up of Chaos Collective's finest instrumentalists and artists. Whether the idea of a Lifecycles concept to hang it all on is really necessary in this case could be a point to consider, as the music speaks for itself. But this is virgin territory for Meadows and on this showing the future looks bright.