Stan Kenton's 1964 LP release Wagner/Kenton might well be the only jazz tribute album to Richard Wagner in existence. Until now that is. Unlike Kenton who attempted to match the excess - and came close - of the infamous German composer with his own bombastic brand of orchestral jazz, the F-IRE Collective multi-instrumentalist Fred Thomas' tribute is a far more low-key, offbeat setting for jazz trio. What it definitely isn't is a ‘third stream’ jazz-classical fusion of any kind, and ostensibly it sounds like it has nothing to do with Wagner at all. The musical aesthetic might be best illustrated by the contribution of the musicians involved: Ewan Bleach is an early jazz and blues woodwind specialist but he doesn't so much jazz up Wagner's leitmotifs as entirely reinvent them. He's an old-school swinger who comes deliciously close to the romantic yearning of a human vocal so isn't a million miles away from the dramatic pathos that's generally attributed to the infamous composer.

Regardless, his playing is stylish throughout whether shifting in and out of idioms that resemble early swing, a blues or spiritual through to classical-sax, Brecht-like cabaret and Klezmer. The veteran Parisian pianist Benoit Delbecq, who's a prepared piano specialist, veers imaginatively and always responsively between free jazz, contemporary classical and largely pre-bop jazz – Ellington being the common denominator between him and Bleach. Thomas' resonant bass sonic mostly anchors the ship or triggers otherworldly ensemble textures that perhaps echo the tonal ambiguities of the subject at hand. You can see it in part as an affectionate parody: hence Wagner's famous ‘Wedding March’ has Chopin's ‘Funeral March’ dumped on top of it, the Tannhäuser Overture has been remodelled as an impressive pre-war swing standard, and the sleeve artwork is an illustration of the composer's skewered head. Jazz listeners will be happy to hear that you don't have to like Wagner to like Dick Wag but ironically it actually might be a good entry point.