Be Still Greenleaf****

Trumpeter Dave Douglas, one of the foremost ideologues of contemporary American jazz, usually composes the music on his records himself. But the repertoire for this first recording with his new quintet – which features saxophonist Jon Irabagon, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Rudy Royston – was in fact chosen by the trumpeter’s late mother, to be played at her funeral last year.

So Douglas's connection with the music here is more deeply personal than usual, and he invests old hymns and folk songs such as Be Still My Soul and Barbara Allen with new harmonic layers that nevertheless seem to bring out something profound and authentic in the material. The addition of progressive bluegrass singer Aoife O'Donovan's pure, natural vocals on six tracks anchors the trumpeter's arrangements firmly to the tradition and meaning of the tunes, even as the group stretches out into the great harmonic unknown. davedouglas.com