A decade ago, South Korean former indie-pop singer Jihye Lee found her way to Boston's Berklee College of Music as a vocal student, and fell in love with the sound of big-band jazz, Lee twice won Berklee's Duke Ellington Prize for composition, and in 2017 released her first album, the Kickstarter-funded April, which won comparisons with Gil Evans, Bob Brookmeyer, and Maria Schneider.

Daring Mind is its imposing successor, with Darcy James Argue producing, and trumpeter Sean Jones once again the lead soloist, It's an apposite title, since Lee has confidently shed Aprils occasionally tentative fixation on favourite devices, and created a repertoire teeming with dizzying contrasts, ‘Relentless Mind’ typifies that, as its hurtling, arrhythmically-accented boppish intro abruptly switches to a dreamily swaying groove, Lee doesn't clone anyone, but there are haunting glimpses of Gil Evans in the floating harmonies over the distant march-pulse of ‘Unshakeable Mind’, while ‘I Dare You’ (quoting Wayne Shorter's words on what jazz means to him) develops a darting rhythm-puzzle in crisscrossing, tersely snapping polyphonies and atonal sax improve.

Playfully childlike flute dances intensify in handclapped rhythms and skidding brass slurs, the fleet-footed Sean Jones makes a mini-concerto out of ‘Struggle Gives You Strength’, and the title track has a majestic Schneider-like glow that warms Jones’ delicate trumpet meditation on it, Bursting with ingenious ideas throughout (some might feel even a few too many), Daring Mind sounds like one of 2021's real standouts, and confirmation of Jihye Lee's big future in the front rank.