Marc Cary, the Washington-raised New York pianist and composer, who turned an unusual jazz apprenticeship on DC's funky Go-Go dance scene of the 1980s into a fluid fusion of postbop improv and songlike groove-centred lyricism, radiates a remarkable impression of fresh discovery and personal intensity on these 14 tracks - despite their idiomatic connections to those aspects of jazzmaking closest to commercial music and the dancefloor. Cary, whose CV joins work with jazz legends including Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter and Roy Hargrove, to the hip-hop of Q-Tip and the soul/R&B of Erykah Badu, conceived Life Lessons as a testament to all that music has taught him about life and art, and as a document of his close-knit present trio's three-year evolution, including during the pandemic. He elegantly mingles synth, Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano sounds, and his virtuosic bassist Dan Chmielinski and drummer Diego Joaquin Ramirez shadow and propel him everywhere. The yearning theme of Abbey Lincoln's 'And It's Supposed To Be Love' is hauntingly developed in acoustic and Fender counterpoint against a resonant bass throb, 'It's Tricky' sounds like 21st century Fats Waller, while Roy Hargrove's trancelike 'Trust' highlights Cary's idiomatic links with Robert Glasper. The raga-influenced 'Phase 2' distantly echoes Joe Zawinul in its spare, fragmentary synth reactions to punchy drumming and heavy, graunching basswork, while 'God Is Love' slices churning salsa-fuelled chording and jazzily double-time outbursts. This subtle and expressive group's methods were developed on countless Harlem live gigs, and it shows.