The blues promised by the album title emerge on the opening lines of ‘Red Line Ballad’, the album’s second track. Here, though, the melody is freely spun by Juan Vinuesa’s tenor sax and the changes altered, though heavily implied. This well-conceived two-horns-andrhythm band has roots in avant-jazz rather than Southside R&B, and is loosely modelled on Ornette Coleman’s classic piano-free quartet.

Spaniard Vinuesa was studying in Chicago when he recorded this original set with Windy City musicians, cornettist Josh Berman and Jason Roebke and Mikel Patrick Avery on bass and drums respectively. Berman delivers spike and drive with a full tone and blends well with the leader’s nicely rounded sound, and the rhythm section deliver meat and bounce underneath, and make the most of Vinuesa’s all-original set.

His saxophone style compounds post-bop lyricism and rhythmic urgency with a sound spectrum ranging from purity to grit. More importantly, he has the melodic flair to sustain interest without the prop of harmonic support, and is confidently at ease with his Windy City compadres.

Most impressive though, are the compositions which make up this eight-track set.

‘Ghost Town Studio’ opens with awkward phrasing, keen dynamics and boppish lines, ‘The Alibi’ swaps phrases over a solid 4/4 and ‘Afro-Asiatic Beat Poem’ consolidates over a moody bass riff. In contrast, ‘Luther’s Mood’ is a ballad abstraction that moves in and out of time, and the album closes confidently with the street music beats of ‘I Børneteater’. Overall, themes are tricky, improvisations free, and the band stay focussed and tight.