Sometimes it pays to wait. Guitarist James Kitchman had been around the London scene for a decade before forming his First Quartet in 2019. After a few gigs the world went into hiding and it wasn’t until April 2021 that Kitchman was able to get them back together for a couple of rehearsals and a day’s recording. The result was a 10-track album of excellent contemporary jazz, an hour of well-written music infused with improvisatory fluency. The empathic relationship between Kitchman’s guitar and Bruno Heinen’s piano – forged across duo residencies – is naturally crucial. On the breezy ‘Once For RA’, the classic jazz guitar sound gets uplift from Heinen’s lightly nimble Bill Evans-style, while the more complex ‘Bees’ interweaves guitar and keys in Methenyesque cascades. Their joint exposition of the elegantly regretful ‘Recluse’ is a particular joy. Underpinning everything, Tom McCredie’s double bass is busily unobtrusive at times, reliably pulsing at others, always reflectively engaged with Shaney Forbes' faultless drumming. There’s only a limited use of guitar effects, but they add important texture when they arrive. ‘The Melt's’ opening swirl of electronica announces an elaborately constructed piece with restless and elusive time signatures. It’s the most ‘produced’ track, along with ‘I Control The Weather’ – a pulsing, methodical piece that decays through FX over a loop of John Lennon’s voice. The range and quality of this debut would be remarkable even if it hadn’t all been laid down in a single day but that detail confirms James Kitchman’s aplomb as composer and bandleader, not least in his choice of travelling companions.