It is always good when an international jazz collaboration is preserved on a recording that shows clearly what each side brought to the meeting. And that is on show here, not just in the committed and powerful delivery of Nikki Iles’ music by the NDR band, but by the contributions of some of her long-term UK colleagues to the line up. A case in point is ‘Red Ellen’ where the swagger of the brass and reeds is matched by the guitar introduction and subsequent solo from Mike Walker, and the prominent role of Ian Thomas’s drums throughout the track.

Like all the best big bands from Henderson and Ellington on down, the ensemble is about allowing individual voices to emerge and shape the music, and the Iles scores create space for this to happen, with both regular bandmembers and guests. After a calm rhythm section introduction, featuring Heller’s bass and Weber’s piano, ‘Wild Oak’ has one of Iles’s typical sinuous melody lines, initially led by the reeds, with Gareth Lockrane’s flute prominent.

Thomas powers the album closer ‘Misfits’ with some prominent drumming, doing what he has always done brilliantly, and shadowing the sections’ phrasing with some fine punctuation. Singling out these tracks is not to say they are the only high points on the album, and all eight pieces offer a rewarding listen, with one of Britain’s most consistent and interesting composers joining forces with an equally absorbing collection of players.