A highly promising classical pianist in his youth, Husband’s teacher hurled his beloved (vinyl) copy of Bill Evans’ Live at the Village Vanguard across the room, raging against the youngster’s interest in jazz.

Almost in retaliation, the young pianist took up the drums against a world of exclusivity, hierarchy, and pointless competition. Piano remained almost a secret passion, and it was Billy Cobham who tempted Husband to start playing keys live, especially piano. And with Songs of Love and Solace (the clue’s rather in the title) Husband revisits that youthful passion, but now, he's in a position in which no-one will throw his love back in his face.

Some songs are especially evocative of Husband’s teen experiences, yet with nary a note of nostalgia: the Beatles’ ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ brims with a sublimated anger; Jim Webb’s ‘Wichita Lineman’ could sing the very birds from the trees in its yearning. His own compositions meanwhile are richly lyric, yet always with a hint of tears beneath: ‘Trying to Get the Feeling Again’ is intimate, graceful, with that beauteous capacity of Bill Evans to pierce the heart.

Interestingly there’s only one Evans cover, ‘My Bells’, opened out and thoughtful; but the American’s spirit hovers around much of the music, especially across standards like ‘Close Enough for Love’.

But if there’s an album that Husband’s work most resonates with, it’s probably Jarrett’s The Melody at Night, with You which shares a similar sense of longing yet isolation, love yet out of reachness. A special recording indeed.