The nimble, light-toned alto saxophone of Allison Neale gets the jazz year off to a refreshing start. Inspired by such masters as Art Pepper and Paul Desmond, she has her own distinctive style in the same cool-intense idiom. Her band – pianist Leon Greening, bassist Julian Bury and Steve Brown on drums – is just perfect. Four numbers also feature Nathaniel Steele, a remarkable young vibraphonist in the Milt Jackson tradition. My favourite among the 10 tracks is The Night We Called It a Day, in which Neale achieves Paul Desmond’s stated ambition of sounding “like a dry martini”.
