Jack Walrath has been living and playing jazz in NYC since 1970, working with a host of luminaries, not least Charles Mingus. Over the course of more than 30 albums as a leader he’s carved out a formidable reputation as performer and composer, working in exactly the kind of tough swinging post-bop that has its spiritual home in Spike Wilner’s legendary Smalls club.

This recording captures him on front of an eminently simpatico line-up, running through some of his extensive back catalogue of compositions with panache and gusto and a decent helping of hip, sardonic NYC front. Abraham Burton is a fine Henderson-esque tenor man who is the perfect foil for Walrath’s full-voiced, nimble trumpet, and the rhythm section definitely know how to cook.

‘A Bite In Tunisia’ sounds like a mordant updating of the immortal Horace Silver Quintet of the mid-1960s: ‘Grandpa Moses’ and ‘Roadkill’ would fit neatly on a Mingus record, with their boppish vocabulary rooted in an awareness of older forms while simultaneously exuding an unmistakeable NY hipness.

George Burton contributes some memorable Pullen-style piano to ‘Left Turn At 86th Street’ that fits in references to all kinds of stylistic devices from the history of the music while never seeming tricksy. This is the real deal.