Nicholas Payton's third album for the Smoke Sessions label twins his multi-instrumental skills with the tight-knit, fiery rhythm team of bassist Buster Williams and drummer Lenny White. Themed on the healing power of creative black American music – the title Sofa Sessions has therapeutic roots – voiceovers reinforce the central message and covers celebrate key figures present and past. It makes for an interesting and pertinent set, but overall, the results are patchy. Payton is a fluent and articulate trumpet lead and his piano playing on Keith Jarrett's 'Blossom' is a sensitive album highlight. But Payton's touch on Fender Rhodes and clavinet lacks bite when the instruments take the lead.

The album begins with Payton on Rhodes and the rhythm section on song on a cover of Geri Allen's 'Feed the Fire' – the late composer's sampled voice describes the genre-crossing nature of the Detroit music scene she grew up in; Payton switches from trumpet to piano when the voiceover is done. 'Bust-a-Move' comes next, a Payton original which fails to fly, and then 'Blossom', and Jarrett's recorded voice describing music's elusive power.

Elsewhere, Wayne Shorter's 'Pinocchio' and Herbie Hancock's 'The Sorcerer' are both set up by recorded interviews outlining life with Miles Davis; Payton solos effectively first on trumpet and then on piano. And a surge of swing underpins 'Jazz is a Four-Letter Word'. But the funky originals and a cover of Benny Golson's 'Along Came Betty' don't fare so well

The 13-track set ends on a high. 'From a Flicker to a Flame' is a moving, sampled voice-and-piano-trio homage to Meghan Stabile, founder of the Revive Music Group, who died, aged 39 in June. And here the leader's touch on piano is a delight.