One half of the Valentine Brothers, the duo behind the seminal 1980s anti-Reagan funk anthem ‘Money's Too Tight To Mention’, Billy Valentine is in fine voice in his senior years, appearing to be positively invigorated by this new project. Collaborating with Bob Thiele Jr, son of the Bob who started Impulse! and head of the rebooted, much-loved Flying Dutchman label (partnered with UK imprint Acid Jazz), Valentine has gone into classic 1970s soul territory with an album that is classily helmed. Stellar players new and old, from veteran drummer extraordinaire James Gadson to modern day guitar hero Jeff Parker and saxophone star Immanuel Wilkins, bring the requisite attention to detail to arrangements of themes that are well known but nonetheless timeless.

To a certain extent, covering Curtis Mayfield's ‘We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue’, Pharoah Sanders’ ‘The Creator Has A Master Plan’ and Stevie Wonder's ‘You Haven't Done Nothing’ is a high risk strategy because the originals are so perfect, but subtle new harmonic threads are woven into the material to good effect, especially when Valentine loosens a phrase in almost Billie-like fashion. He hits a performative peak on a terribly moving version of ‘Home Is Where The Hatred Is’, where he appears to live out the pain of its composer Gil Scott-Heron as he evokes a junkie walking through the twilight.