Richard Rodgers' 'If I Loved You' we lingered longest over particularly as we liked the Ray Brown Trio's live version on the album Bam Bam Bam from the 1980s later reissued under another title. If you feared the same old same old given the standards theme as we did embarking on the thought of the album conceptually, listening as ever proves such guesswork wrong. They are the gift from Broadway, balladry and bebop - also Brazilian music in this regard - that keep on giving in the right hands as here. Proving something of an education partly it's because of the repertoire, partly it's because of the flair and deep song experience displayed by the collection of leaders that the Tel Aviv born New York scene player has with him.

Tenor saxophone icon George Coleman known for his classic work with Miles Davis on Seven Steps to Heaven and whose own tune 'Lo-Joe' on which he features is here. ''Big George'' as a recent One For All release has it is also on 'Never Let Me Go,' a tune impossible to tire of. Then there's bassist John Patitucci whose long tenure in the Wayne Shorter Quartet proved essential, and Billy Hart, the Herbie Hancock Mwandishi era eminence immaculate with Kevin Hays on For Heaven's Sake a few years ago, completes the personnel on drums. Miles Davis' 'Little Willie Leaps' interpreted by Ronnie Scott's Boptet in the 1950s but rarely covered in recent years is one of the fine choices here - it goes back to Miles' first recordings in 1947 with Charlie Parker.

Best of all Victor Young's 1940s classic 'Stella By Starlight' is kept to last. At this point listening we immediately paused to reach for Joe Pass' solo version from half a century ago on the great guitarist's Virtuoso album for a resonable but not at all exact comparison given the individualism of all jazz players of these icons' calibre. Silberstein's is so different sonically but stands up extremely well alongside the mastery Pass achieved. We have only heard Silberstein play live once and that memory from an appearance on an outdoors stage in Valletta has stayed with us approaching 13 years on and is certainly enhanced all over again by this new release. He was the fully formed article back then, he just goes deeper as the Jazz & People track Dada in 2022 also indicated.

Yotam Silberstein, photo: Dan Balilty