Picking up where he last left off with the trio on Safe and Sound, it’s hard to separate the two in terms of quality but this is certainly much more confident, Edwards shows his considerable chops on opener ‘Samba City’ trading lines with drummer Moses Boyd as the energy levels flow from a trickle to a torrent.

All his own compositions, in an Ahmad Jamal-to-early Jason Rebello-like direction, Edwards, bassist Max Luthert and Boyd find themselves unapologetically in a retro modern mainstream area where the structures and themes are transparent, an elegance and improved group interplay in the way the three navigate the material, an update on the sound of classic 1950s and 60s modern jazz where there is a bluesy sense of swing, a strong groove and quickwittedness.

Switching to Fender Rhodes on the title track injects a certain Weldon Irvine-like hipness that isn’t distracting and updates the sound from the 60s to the 70s. Quite American in a way, that’s something that can’t often be said of a lot of current British jazz as so much of what happens in the UK scene bypasses the US classic straight-ahead traditions entirely, and maybe a little too old school for some, nonetheless there’s a polish and skill in the trio’s execution that sits well with the work of new US masters such as Aaron Diehl.

Edwards gained plenty of friends first time around on his debut and I’ll hazard a hopefully accurate guess that he’ll win plenty more with these eight tracks that also accentuate the considerable quality of his writing and general musicianship. SG

Released on 17 June

The Peter Edwards trio play the Manchester Jazz Festival on 28 July