Hard bop, Monk and organpowered soul-jazz are among prizewinning UK saxophonist Tony Kofi's favourite inspirations. Untypically, for his music-of-now Brit-jazz generation, Kofi (who has played with Ornette Coleman and the World Saxophone Quartet) likes hitching his earthy attack, rocksolid swing and romantic ballad tones to a classic-jazz agenda, and Point Blank is a forthright example of that – tunes by Duke Pearson, Dr Lonnie Smith, Wes Montgomery and Horace Silver pepper the tracklist, with Kofi leading the charge on baritone sax throughout. Duke Pearson's serpentine bopper ‘Minor League’ gets an infectiously punchy midtempo treatment (with Mingus’ ‘Boogie Stop Shuffle’ wryly thrown in), and Pat Martino's staccato ‘Cisco’ and Dr Lonnie Smith's slinkily soulful ‘LS Blues’ are also standouts – the latter a vehicle for a languidly lyrical Kofi solo, a demonically snarling one from consistently exciting organist Pete Whittaker, and a fluid guitar break from Simon Fensby, whose spirit sounds a shade more freed by blues than fast standard-song changes-playing. Some sultry latin jazz and a lustrous baritone-ballad intro to McCoy Tyner's dreamy ‘Search For Peace’ extend this warmly affectionate set's variety, even if its generic rules-observance might valuably have been stretched a little more.