The first volume of Jeremy Pelt's The Art of Intimacy was a soft-focus drum-free trio set, showcasing the trumpeter's warmth and tonal control.

That soft focus remains on Volume 2, but now strings enhance the gentle moods, and the piano trio rhythm section pulses gently with the swish of Billy Hart's drums.

The album opens with Pelt delicately stating the theme of his artfully-composed original ‘For Whom I Love So Much’. Strings enter on the bridge, fade as bassist Buster Williams takes a turn, and drop in again at key moments as the track unfolds. A second Pelt original, the smoky, late-night ‘Blues in Sophistication’, delivers minor-key moods towards the end of the set.

The remaining eight tracks present knowingly-arranged covers. The introduction to Henry Mancini's ‘Slow Hot Wind’ reprises the strummed guitar that introduced Sarah Vaughn's 1965 cover. Here, drummer Hart toys with an understated bossa nova and those evocative strums are played inside the piano by the excellent Victor Gould. Guitar only surfaces on a duet ballad reading of ‘Two for the Road’ at the end of the set; Pelt's trumpet and vocals both feature here. Elsewhere, strings set up the nourish mood of ‘If I ruled the World’, smooth the middle of ‘I Can't Escape from You’ and shimmer on ‘Two Different Worlds’.

Pelt knows how to carry a tune and David O’Rourke's string arrangements dovetail neatly with the leader's narrative arc. O’Rourke's arranged on Pelt's other ‘with strings album’, Close to My Heart, which was released 20 years ago. Here, the balance of romance and classical bite is spot on. Overall, Pelt sustains the album's downbeat moods with a focussed technique, melodic purpose and, on the brooding ‘There’ll Be Other Times’, Harmon mute.