London-based trumpeter Nick Walters is an excellent player with a distinctive sound. I particularly like the way he varies his attack, alternating between stinging riffs and soulful leans before stretching out over knotty, harmonically-daring phrases. Until last year he was probably best known as a member of the Beats & Pieces Big Band, as well as Ruby Rushton and festival favourites Riot Jazz, but recently he’s been building a profile as a bandleader. His impressive 2019 release, Awakening, drew on the expansive sonic palette of his Paradox Ensemble (which includes sousaphone, accordion and harp) and marked him out as an inventive composer. His latest record, Active Imagination, has a more spontaneous feel. It’s an album of strong hooks that leaves plenty of space for the soloists to let loose, the product of a day in the studio trying out ideas. On ‘So Long Chef’ (dedicated to John Coltrane) the band lock into the first of many transcendent grooves. Walters and tenorist Jeff Guntren launch searching solos and the rock-solid rhythm section chuck ideas into the mix and ramp up the energy even further. The drifting ‘Ahimsa’ takes things down a notch, opening with vapor trails of trumpet and electronics. ‘Gordian Knot Part 1’ reminds me of a sleepy Wynton Marsalis ballad, while part two runs wild with an anguished, effects pedal-driven feature for Tenderlonious on soprano sax. Walters also plays in a couple of West African fusion bands and you can hear that influence as well, particularly in the bustling ‘Dansoman Last Stop’, inspired by the Ghananian capital, Accra.