Colin Steele Quintet

With his third CD Though The Waves, Colin Steele has made an auspicious debut for the German label ACT, also home to The Esbjorn Svensson Trio, and seems poised for major recognition throughout Europe.

This unassuming trumpeter and composer is at the vanguard of a resurgent Scottish jazz scene, leading a busy working group that also includes Dublin’s Michael Buckley, whose lithesome tenor is a perfect foil to Steele’s clean and crisp trumpet lines.

Leading Scottish players bassist Aidan O’Donnell, pianist Dave Mulligan and drummer Stu Ritchie are the other components in a quintet described by The Irish Times as “ a bop unit quite unlike any other…dancing, folk-like themes give its work a definite Scottish flavour. and the soloists respond beautifully to the contexts created for them.”