Over the past eight years of busy transatlantic gigging, and recordings for Michael Janisch's Whirlwind Recordings label, the Brooklyn and London-resident American drummer/composer Jeff Williams has been on a late-career roll – drawing fresh energy and ideas from a pool of younger US and British musicians, and balancing a jazz sensibility honed from the 1960s with a relaxation about letting contemporary improvisers roam. This live recording from London's Vortex catches a superb Williams band in flight on a mix of new and older originals. The edgily sophisticated altoist John O'Gallagher and rugged free-bop tenorist Josh Arcoleo make a fascinatingly contrasting saxophone partnership, pianist Kit Downes enhances and recirculates every spontaneous idea he hears flying around him, and Lisbon trumpeter Gonçalo Marquez brings new warmth, textural depth and improv range to the ensemble sound. Williams’ bright, carnival-like ‘Borderline’, pensive-to-Coltranesque ‘Lament’, Iberian-tinged ‘Under The Radar’ and hard-boppish ‘Double Life’ are adventurous remakes of earlier recorded versions, Marquez’ ‘Canção do Amolador’ is a haunting meditation sporadically lit by brass flares. Jeff Williams’ classic-jazz roots go deep, but there's nothing backward-looking about this vividly powerful set.