Album: 'Stoneface' Stabbins, Transcendental (Noetic)

Saxophonist Larry Stabbins (of Weekend and Working Week) follows up his futuristic Stonephace album with a superb slice of old-school spiritual jazz.

It's an acoustic quintet featuring pianist Zoe Rahman, all of whom play with Stabbins in Jerry Dammers' Spatial AKA. The opening "Africa" signals the Coltrane influence, but Transcendental is no mere backward glance, with the leader's delicate flute-playing creating a trancey contrast to his full-on tenor sax.