‘This is the first album I’ve made that focuses more on compositions than improvisations,’ says alto saxophonist Pat Donaher of his fourth release as leader, Occasionally. It consists – as the title suggests – of tunes written by Donaher largely for or inspired by specific occasions, and delivered with great invention and verve by the leader and his collaborators. There are two nuptials-related pieces, ‘Wedding Day’ and ‘Valiant on Valance’, the former gentle and solemn, the latter, named for a New Orleans street, coolly swinging; and a couple of numbers in honour of Room 624, the classroom that was the site of Donaher's jazz education at Eastman School of Music, the first a trio, the second a ‘revisiting’, this time performed by the whole sextet. Then there's the playfully funky and constantly shape-shifting ‘D2’ – dedicated to nephews of Donaher – which features an extended guitar solo from Tim Watson, and ‘Bouncin’ Off the Walls’, a spirited response to the pent-up sensations brought on by lockdown.