Sub-titled as ‘a collection of ballads’, it's Skidmore's tenor that carries the weight here, his central solo role wonderfully sustained and accomplished, as he works his way through 13 songs associated with or composed by his hero, John Coltrane. He's supported by two different ensembles, the string and woodwind arrangements deftly handled by Towns (for three pieces) or the arrangers associated with the German orchestra. Skidmore gets to explore each piece at will, playing the melody in stately fashion, this typified by his take on ‘Nature Boy’, his coda adding a further layer of beauty. Of course, Coltrane's influence is apparent in both Skidmore's sound and his stylistic inclination, but that has been his stance for many decades now. The pace throughout is meditative rather than confrontational, the tone measured and often ethereal, the writing both elegant and harmonically adroit. If it took Stan Getz's celebrated Focus album to acclimatise jazz purists to the idea of a soloist working with strings, what Skidmore does here enables him to join the firmament of stars who have also avoided the temptation to do what writer Richard Williams describes as “putting five spoons of sugar in a decent cup of tea”. Skidmore has the grace, the sureness of touch and the imagination to create something of beauty and has achieved just that. Put simply, this is a lovely record.