How eclectic a listener are you, even within the broad band of the jazz and even wider again ''improvised, new music'' genres - do you have red lines? In some ways certainly if you like avant garde styles it is harder to embrace the more melodic music at the other end of the spectrum on a scale when 10 is atonal and 1 is nursery rhyme. Of course you can have your cake and eat it, why not. Nobody has to be doctrinaire in terms of their own musical manifesto and you always get albums that are difficult to love even if they correspond with your usual preferences as a listener. Tunes here come in three strands: by Kenny Wollesen alone, in collaboration with Jesse Harris and the outlier a more skippable track at the end by reedist Ben Goldberg. Harris is an ultra melodic writer, Wollesen more coming with a reputation of experimentalism.

Recorded for the This is the Modern World, DJ Trouble WFMU Jersey City radio show the voicings coloured mostly by Wollesen's vibes or Harris' sometimes Julian Lage-esque guitar lines where the tonic is king and each tune has a clarity whether beginning middle and end relatable or more taking the scenic route, Michael Coleman on piano and synths is less obvious (except on the Mulatu Astatke-like 'Cabriolet') in the blend while bass guitarist Jeong Lim Yang and drummer Tim Kieper adopt more collegiate supportive roles and yet when needed Kieper is prominent particularly on 'Empress' and is appealingly Adam Nussbaum-like when playing just inconspicuous but still significant time.

The tunes are, speaking generally, incredible, Wollesen's solo on 'L' Amoureux' is a wow moment even when it's over before you know it but there isn't much extended improvisation at play. The quintet prove anyone can tell a story just as effectively instrumentally without a singer. And hold that thought because Wollesen and Harris' 'Cavalier da Baton' is so personality laden you feel you have just read a novel Lennon and McCartney could have written in its winsome, wistful character laden appeal.

You get more a pentatonic sense on 'Cabriolet' that gives the ensemble mood a chattering edge to it especially when Kieper's beat becomes that bit more brittle and there are off-kilter harmonic fills snuck in within the fabric of the sound that catch your ear and allow the piece more a freaky sense of sub plot. 'Fifty Five' is against the odds quite Ramsey Lewis-like and the sweet soul music the band are capable of melts like the finest Tupelo honey.

MORE READING:

• Jesse Harris interviewed (2021)