Lisa Hilton: Extended Daydream

Lisa Hilton's success story continues with her 31st release, Extended Daydream. Her considerable body of work makes frequent chart appearances and measures streams in millions. She appears in various group formats, but on this occasion, the focus is on her quintet.

That quintet is based around her longtime trio with bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Rudy Royston, augmented with the return of tenor saxophonist JD Allen, who has appeared on eight of Hilton's previous albums, along with another regular collaborator, trumpeter Igmar Thomas.

Hilton draws from an impressively broad palette of influences when selecting material for cover versions. Opening the album with Miles Davis' "So What" is a bold choice; tackling one of jazz's most crown jewels is inherently risky. A lackluster interpretation suggests a lack of imagination; a successful one risks being overshadowed by the original. Fortunately, the quintet navigates these pitfalls with a performance that crackles with first-take intensity.

The second cover is another interesting choice: Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell's "Wildflower." Thomas' muted trumpet weaves sensitively around Hilton's piano as they strip away the studio slick to expose the intimate melancholy of the melody.

Much of the album has a light Latin hue, which is perfect for the talents of Curtis and Royston as they revel in shifting rhythms around. Those rhythms come to the fore in "Tropical Tuesday" and "It's Just For Now" against the sparkling interplay of a variety of instrumental combinations.

"Blues On The Beach" and "Here And There And Back And Forth" prove to be playgrounds for saxophone and trumpet, as the band finds the groove and is clearly having fun. Hilton is generous throughout, allowing her band to have a full share of the spotlight.

As well as her solo piece, "Spacious Skies," Hilton is at her best as she guides moods around on the stop/start rhythms of the excellent "Sunset Tale" and as she weaves impressionistic lines around Allen's sax on the title track.

Hilton always brings an abundance of the feel-good factor to her recordings, qualities that combine with her cross-genre appeal to make this album another winner. The quintet proves essential to the album's success, contributing both improvisational energy and subtlety as they navigate the shifting moods of these inventive compositions.