Twenty-four-year-old US pianist Kris Bowers has serious improv chops – no wonder he won the prestigious Tholonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in 2011. But he grew up listening to a lot of R&B, and has played with Kanye West and Jay-Z, so perhaps unsurprisingly his debut album is one to file alongside Robert Glasper's genre-busting Black Radio and José James's equally eclectic No Beginning, No End. Actually, Bowers has performed with James in the past, and James turns up here, providing warm, soulful vocals on the closer, ‘Ways of Light’. Stevie Wonder is clearly an influence; ‘WonderLove’, sung by Chris Turner and featuring great splashy Fender work from Bowers, is dreamily reminiscent of his 1970s heyday. Julia Easterlin steps up to the mic for the driving, looped ‘Forget-er’ while ‘Wake the Neighbors’, rich in Adam Agati's guitar work, has a sharp, electric edge: there's no shortage of variety here, either vocally or in terms of arrangements. If it's straightahead jazz you're after, this isn't it; but Bowers' musical thinking is strongly influenced by the Great Tradition – if you want to hear where US jazz fusion is at in 2014, this is a good place to start.