Hamilton’s inaugural album for the US Concord label was recorded in 1977 and released as Scott Hamilton Is A Good Wind Who Is Blowing No Ill. It made an immediate impact and initiated a tide of goodwill for him that has persisted ever since. His honeyed style, a relaxed and fluent amalgam of Flip Phillips and Zoot Sims, still pleases audiences wherever he goes and the albums continue to come.

Their imprints are more disparate now that he lives away from the US. One fruitful association has been with the Danish Stunt label, this the third album of theirs to feature him with this excellent rhythm section.

The hook this time is the old idea of ‘jazzing the classics’, that is taking familiar pieces from the classical repertoire and treating them as a basis for improvisation. Or some say, improvement. ‘I Think of You’ is based on the second theme from Rachmaninoff’s ‘Piano Concerto no 2’ and sets the pace, Hamilton’s variations on the melody quite restrained, Lundgren and his companions tasteful and apposite. The ‘Theme from Swan Lake’ is marginally more animated as is ‘Moon Love’ (also via Tchaikovsky) which highlights Backenroth’s wonderfully supple bass line and has Lundgren digging in at length. If the mood overall is reflective rather than blatantly swinging, then so be it. Scott’s tenor sound is one of the great adornments of mainstream jazz and beautifully caught here on such as the lovely ‘The Lamp Is Low’ (from Ravel’s ‘Pavane’).

Writer Ned Ferm calls it all ‘straight-ahead perfectionism’ – and he’s right.