Known for his work in recent years with Jan Garbarek and more distantly with John McLaughlin the great tabla player, drummer, percussionist, konnakol artist Trilok Gurtu returns with this storming and infectiously exuberant new studio album dedicated to his guru Ranjit Maharaj.

One of the album tracks 'Holy Mess,' is a very unliteral but gutsily head bobbing homage to the Second Great Miles Davis Quintet drummer Tony Williams although the atmosphere of the puckishly titled God is a Drummer is more throw the kitchen sink at it 80s fusion in character that sits alongside say aspects of the Zawinul Syndicate output of yore than the jazz-rock experimentations of the late-1960s that Miles did so much to usher in and Joe Zawinul had his part in nudging along 50 years ago on Bitches Brew.

Gurtu is joined by trumpeter Frederik Köster, trombonist Christophe Schweizer, keyboardist Sabri Tulug Tirpan with some pleasingly dated sounds offset by his fantastic sense of offbeats and choice of accents, and bass guitarist Jonathan Cuniado who brings an aliveness to the beat. Guests include Indian singer Kaplana Patowary, Turkish singer Zara, Turkish violinist Emre Meralli and for good measure a tad unnecessarily if I am being completely frank the North German Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie, conducted by one Wolf Kerschek who in 2016 broke a Guinness world record by conducting ''the largest orchestra in the world'' containing 7,548 musicians. But we will not hold that against him.

Highlights? Not surprisingly given that one of the chief reasons you approach a Gurtu record with relish is the propect of some spectacular tabla is the fact that the solo tabla sections however brief rise to the top of my list. God is a Drummer is full of tiny interludes, something that might irritate, but actually I found worked well because they acted as resets especially when one instrumental track gives way to a contrasting vocalised extravaganza such as the riveting 'Obrigado' when the Indian vocals have a rush and ecstasy about them. The konnakol (art of performing percussion syllables vocally) that the album is dotted with and that sits organically within well integrated instrumental and vocal passages is a big plus too.

An album full of life and a reminder of what an all-round musician and big thinking composer Gurtu is and how his art and musical life is a joyous part and representative of the universal vibrations that surround us all and just gets deeper as he journeys on. Stephen Graham
To be released on Friday. Photo of Trilok Gurtu: via Jazzline