Having racked up impressive sideman credits with the likes of Gregory Porter, Marcus Strickland and Robert Glasper, trumpeter Harrold makes his debut with, as might be expected, a strong embrace of black popular culture. In fact, contrary to jazz orthodoxy, Harrold does not exclusively profile as a stardust soloist, and the album places a clear focus on melodic content, right down to the leader taking the unusual step of playing only themes on certain tracks, as opposed to throwing down attention-grabbing improvisations. Having said that, Harrold has a pleasingly broad, warm tone and excellent articulation that precludes the need for him to really showboat, and his well-measured harmonising with vocalists of the calibre of Bilal Oliver and Georgia Ann Muldrow works well. The material is largely mid-tempo, sometimes with the languid sway of reggae and or a slant of neo-soul that slightly recalls Strickland’s sumptuous 2016 set Nihil Novi, and to a lesser extent Glasper’s early Experiment works. Lastly, there is a distinct political subtext to the repertoire, which is not just in the references to climate change and the Black Lives Matter campaign. Lyrically, The Mugician does not pull any punches on the brutality of life in contemporary America or the grave injustice meted out to people of colour, making the album as thought provoking as it is engaging.