With the bassist Kyle Eastwood’s passion for both film and jazz, it seemed inevitable that at some point in his career he would get round to performing the soundtracks to the films of his legendary 93-year old father Clint.

Indeed, Eastwood Senior’s films (both as an actor and a director) have produced some significant moments in film music: Ennio Morricone’s sublime Spaghetti Western scores for one, through to jazz soundtracks such as Lalo Schifrin’s Dirty Harry and films such as Play Misty for Me and Bird, in spite of the dubious idea of updating Bird’s rhythm section on the latter score.

Here, Eastwood Jr pays tribute to some of the best music commissioned by his jazz-loving dad, including themes written by both father and son. Although a few of the tunes were included on a previous album entitled Cinematic (released in 2019), this follow up is a more refined and cohesive effort. That’s largely thanks to the contribution of the experienced Luxembourgish soundtrack composer/arranger Gast Waltzing and his conservative yet concise, stylish arrangements performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. It lays a solid foundation for some impressive solos by his long-time dedicated British quintet.

The opening ‘Eastwood Overture’ might be a stylistic sweeping epic medley too far, but the album is nevertheless tastefully crafted, with jazz fitting naturally as well as prominently within the lyrical thrust of the orchestrations. Highlights include an elegiac reading of a theme by saxophonist Lenny Niehaus (a childhood friend of Clint’s who also scored the original music on Bird) from Bridges of Madison County with Quentin Collins in Miles-ish mode and pianist Andrew McCormack’s typically graceful melodically-probing solo ensuring the levels of creativity remain high. Hats off as well, to the sensitive Miles-Gil-ish large ensemble arrangement of Morricone's well-thumbed theme to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The bassist-leader handles well the 1970s funk theme from the Dirty Harry trilogy and later films from 2006-8 include his father’s own moody Miles-like maintheme to Changeling; those from Letters from Iwo Jima and the sweetly tuneful Gran Torino are from Kyle’s collaboration with producer-composer Michael Stevens. The latter’s Chet Baker-like ballad has Eastwood’s rich resonant tone to the fore and Brandon Allen on soprano sax at his assertive best.

Apart from the slight quibble that Jerry Fielding’s The Gauntlet score (which originally featured Art Pepper and Jon Faddis) isn’t included, this is good quality work from all concerned and a tribute that should inspire further listening to the impressive collection of film music associated with the ‘man with no name’.