Young Cambridge-born musician Tom Green, who won the 2013 Dankworth prize for jazz composition, fronts this assured septet (two saxes, trumpet, his trombone and a rhythm section). A poised and nuanced improviser, Green dominates the soloing (he constantly proves why he’s the first trombonist to get a postgrad place at the Royal Academy of Music). The contrapuntal writing on Sticks and Stones whirls like a dance, while Green induces his horn players to slide gracefully across each other’s paths on the waltzing Equilibrium. Mirage, meanwhile, is a solo vehicle for a murmuring trombone that becomes fleet and swinging. Skylark, the only standard song, is a sensitive interpretation with Green shadowing Matthew Herd’s fine alto sax, and DIY is a lively collective stomp in which the group sounds like a New Orleans jazz band. This medium-sized band manages to sounds like a big one, and Tom Green sounds like an even bigger prospect.
