The New York-based pianist-keyboardist Jacky Terrasson put on a playfully exhilarating performance at the Ronnie Scott's Piano Trio Festival last year and he offers more of the same in expanded form on his debut studio release Take This for Impulse! It follows a lengthy 10-album spell on Blue Note with his previous title Gouache released on Universal Jazz France in 2012. Terrasson always digs deep into the jazz tradition, the lush harmonies and spatial awareness in his phrasing point to Ahmad Jamal as a key influence. The fizzing Afro-Cuban and Caribbean rhythms come via the superb contemporary Cuban drummer Lukmil Perez Herrera and Malian percussionist Adama Diarra, especially invigorating is the Bud Powell cubop classic ‘Un Poco Loco’. The Davis-or-is-it-Evans classic ‘Blue in Green’ shows he can do ‘less is more’ as eloquently. Terrasson has a knack of putting a surprising twist on a pop song however kitsch, and his remake of a ponderous pop hit from the 1970s – Michel Sardou's ‘Maladie D'amour’ is given a cheery African folk-dance makeover. Guest vocalist Sly Johnson owes a debt to a couple of Als – that's Jarreau and Green – on the excellent original ‘Kiff’, ‘Take Five (Take 2)’ and The Beatles' ‘Come Together’. If you're finding contemporary jazz a little on the heavy side at the moment, why not tune in to the infectiously upbeat spirit on Take This.