It has been a while since such a stand-out trombone-led album has come along - probably the last time in our experience was a hugely contrasting release stylistically by Nathaniel Cross entitled Charge It To the Game a couple of years ago - and before that it was live rather than on record hearing the formidable Irish trombonist Paul Dunlea in 2018 at an Irish scene showcase in Belfast.

US trombonist Nick Finzer is a closer match stylistically to Dunlea than to Cross given that both Finzer and Dunlea share a progressive rewriting of the straightahead-type traditions at the core of their approach. Other paths among top global trombone stylists attract for instance the Swiss genius Samuel Blaser who has typically choosen the avant fork in the road most satisfyingly.

A sextet affair two years on from Out of Focus released on his own label the go-ahead Outside In Music, Finzer, who has a big gutsy sound, is with tenor saxophonist/bass clarinettist Lucas Pino, guitarist Alex Wintz, pianist Glenn Zaleski, bassist Dave Baron and drummer Jimmy Macbride. 'Follow Your Heart,' preceded by a related introductory piece, is where the album goes into more daring territory after a less oblique, bright, easy-to-grasp slice of positivity on 'To Dream a Bigger Dream.'

Like Dunlea, Finzer is drawn to elaborate on melodic phraseology, although occasionally dourly morose passages wing their way in, measured out in gentle mid-tempo spaces. Sometimes you gain the feeling that the front line voicings block out the tenor too much in a crowd of textures. But when that passes and the album becomes increasingly hymnal - for instance on 'Vision or Mirage' - that certain yearning for the spiritual that reveals itself increasingly is much easier to latch on to and proves most rewarding. Nick Finzer, photo: Outside In Music. Dreams, Visions, Illusions is out on 24 April