Trumpeter Graham South is best known as a soloist with Manchester's Beats & Pieces Big Band, but he's also an active member of the city's creative improvised music scene. His debut album, By And By, which started life as a festival commission, is based around A Child of Our Time, a secular oratorio by the composer Michael Tippett. Written in response to Kristallnacht, Tippett's pacifist work is dedicated to all victims of oppression and includes a collection of African-American spirituals that South has chosen to reinterpret. Much of the music is improvised. The familiar melodies of ‘Nobody Knows’ and ‘Steal Away’ appear in abstract form, melting into textural passages and lyrical solos from South and the rest of the band. A Child of Our Time is noted for its recurring theme of shadow and light and there are similar shifts here. The mood is patient and thoughtful, but as the tracks progress grooves emerge and the improvisations gather force. ‘Go Down, Moses’ opens with the quartet feeling their way through the music and builds to a defiant climax with South adding a gritty, rough edge to his sound. South wanted to reflect the struggle for freedom that the songs embody as well as their messages of hope, and that definitely comes across.