Until now, my experience of Goldsby's bass playing was limited to albums by the WDR big-band, where he's been resident for 26 years, and witnessing his teaching and accompanying skills in the Sligo Jazz Project setting.

But this new album, not merely recorded during the pandemic like so many others, is also an indirect celebration of Goldsby's remission after a serious cancer diagnosis in autumn 2019. Back at work under the necessary restrictions, he convened the WDR rhythm-section of Dekker and their new recruit, 32-year-old American pianist Billy Test, who is quietly virtuosic but also musical with it. Test is responsible for three of the originals, while Goldsby's four include ‘Fall Calls’ (an elegiac melody played with the bow) and ‘Sergio’, a beguiling Brazil-evoking piece with a seductive 6/4 feel. Balancing these on the CD are two classics, an energetic version of the Parker title-track and an initially unaccompanied ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’, exploiting the bass's open strings as well as some groovy fingering. This is music that transcends the circumstances of its recording and – if you prefer downloads to the CD – you get four bonus items including legacy tunes by Hampton Hawes, John Coates and Mulgrew Miller, plus ‘Cinema Paradiso’.