US based Aussie tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts puts out his own records at regular intervals and last time he was on the marlbank radar was on Pat Bianchi's toddy for the body Three reviewed in February.

Roberts, known for his work with Joey DeFrancesco and Van Morrison (2018's You're Driving Me Crazy was one of Van's best jazz themed albums - hear Troy's soloing on 'Travelin' Light') has gathered an A team of players who are to most jazz fans far more ''famous'' than he is - but fame, eh, what a fickle and sometimes irrelevant commodity.

But, yeah, they are: guitarist Paul Bollenback (who was on classic DeFrancesco Columbia albums Part III, Reboppin and Live at the 5 Spot in the 1990s - & last on our radar on Heidi Martin's Gifts and Sacrifices out in 2022) here best heard on Roberts' tune 'Stretch Armstrong'; bassist John Patitucci, a Wayne Shorter Quartet legend, marvellous on Letter For Paul in 2021 and significant here in the riffery of 'Jive Dumpling'; and lastly drummer Jimmy Macbride - strong on newcomer Matthew Rotker Lynn's EP Introducing earlier this year and who kicks off 'Solar Panels' so well are all monster players. Of course - given what's here - Roberts is one too. QED. Tunes are 'Green Lights'; 'The Question'; 'By Your Side'; 'Solar Panels'; 'Harry Brown' - the longest track at just over 10 minutes long; 'Jive Dumpling'; 'Up to No Good'; 'The Scotsman’s Ballad'; 'Stretch Armstrong' and the very brief bit of studio banter effing and jeffing 'Soundcheckin’' for a bit of welcome real life veritas, impromptu vocalese & pleasantly syncopated riffery at the end.

Roberts' tune 'The Comedian was a previous track of the week in these pages in 2020.

Roberts makes us think admiringly of Steve Grossman a bit in one place on 'By Your Side' - Jack Johnson legend Grossman's strength was ballads and so is Roberts' on this track and even better 'The Scotsman's Ballad' which is by far the best thing on a very convincing album. Roberts' tunes are extremely strong - there's plenty of flow, beginnings-middles-ends to them, and Bollenbeck's soloing on 'The Question' is outrageously compelling. Better than Roberts' best album to date - which we reckoned up to this point was 2015's Secret Rhymes (Inner Circle Music) that had good versions of ‘Stella By Starlight’ and ‘Up Jumped Spring’ that just like this latest proved tonally very persuasive. Photo: via Bandcamp