In 1977, the American drummer Art Taylor's candid book Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews made waves for its mix of insights into the imaginative processes of jazzmaking, and the experiences of African-American musicians in a predominantly white-run industry. Taylor's book, revised in 1993, made a powerful impression on California-born trumpeter Jeremy Pelt – whose Griot: This Is Important! session intersperses brief interviews with jazz artists including Larry Willis, Harold Mabern, Rene Marie and Ambrose Akinmusire with performances inspired by them and others from Pelt and his band. Following Larry Willis' ironic take on the jazz meanings of the word ‘underdog’, the song of the same name opens in high trumpet twists uncorked with Pelt's assurance of pitching and power, before stormy post– Coltrane percussion galvanises both him and excellent young Taiwanese vibraphonist Chien Chien Lu. Saxophonist JD Allen urges his and Pelt's ‘young brothers’ to recognise their bonds with musicians of older generations, and Pelt develops ‘Don't Dog The Source’ into a surging, Monk-nuanced groove. Pianist/educator Bertha Hope's reflections on women in jazz draw a haunting muted-horn tribute from the leader, while Ambrose Akinmusire's closing thoughts spark the hard-hitting, call-and-response-swapping finale ‘Relevance’. Jeremy Pelt's laudable motives occasionally outrun the technical execution of this complex tracklist's demanding structure, but its thought-provoking content, and Pelt's and Lu's musicality in full cry, don't falter for all that.