The handclaps don’t take long to show up on Love Bullet, Timo Lassy’s gutsy Hank Mobley-into-Dexter Gordon-like tenor saxophone sound seizing firm hold of the Finn’s latest record. And retain his firm grip on the direction of the album from start to finish he certainly does.

Lassy – best known for his work with Five Corners Quintet and recently on soul-jazz delight Welcome to My World – leads a warmly expressive unselfconscious organ-flavoured four-piece rhythm section on the record released by the Membran label earlier this summer on which guests include trumpet star Jukka Eskola on a nifty little set of 10 numbers.

The lazy languorous title-track with the addition of testy vibes from guest Panu Savolainen drawing out the metallic clash of the instrument nicely is one of the album’s strongest suits and there’s plenty of joy on ‘Hip or Not’ led off by a well drilled press roll from Teppo Mäkynen who plays a blinder throughout the album. ‘Stay Close’ distils all that’s best in a slow blues with a little twist and wrinkle on the nature of a jazz waltz coming late in the day on ‘Waltz Unsolved’.

Lassy more than proves himself to be a talented writer and producer as he does a player totally steeped in the Blue Note tradition and you can hear the saxist and his band this summer at the Brecon Jazz Festival on 8 August and Pheasantry in London on 10 August