Young vibraphone star Joel Ross went back to an unfinished music degree at New York's New School in 2020, when the pandemic had scuppered live performing – and was inspired there to dig deeper into the endless adaptability of the blues. The result has been nublues, Ross' fourth Blue Note release.

Its three predecessors have all been distinguished by an engaging directness, driven by rhythms and hooks from hard bop, classic Coltrane, the multifarious grooves of contemporary music, and often infusions from African-American hymnal traditions - but nublues, with its mix of seven new Ross blues and ballads, two pieces by John Coltrane and one by Monk, is perhaps his purest distillation yet of all that rich background.

The hypnotic two-chord vamp of John Coltrane's ‘Equinox’ eases with an unhurried hipness into dazzling solos from Ross and Wilkins, whose bebop-rooted articulacy and soul feel offer them endlessly startling options, and excellent pianist Jeremy Corren nods to both McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett in his own fluent variations.

The 11-minute ‘Mellowdee’ (a standout of the set) begins on a coaxingly ebbing and flowing chorus with distant roots in the haunting laments of Ornette Coleman, before taking off into light, airborne solos by Ross and Wilkins with an infectiously springy rhythmic energy beneath. ‘Bach (God the Father in Eternity)’ swells from quiet beginnings through gathering improv like a church congregation's passion building, and the finale - Monk's iconic ‘Evidence’ - is unfurled with a coaxing gentleness and a floating groove rather than with Monk's brusqueness, before Ross and Wilkins gleefully swap bebop flights. All these fine tributes to the tradition sound familiar, but there isn't a cliche within earshot.