Ravi Coltrane: In Flux (SLG)

Now in his early 40s this tenor and soprano saxophonist has taken his time to emerge, but then again there was a huge shadow cast over his life.

His father was jazz legend John and his mother the pianist/composer Alice.

Not that he seems to have suffered unduly by these possibly career-crushing associations (there is an interesting interview with the good humoured Ravi under Absolute Elsewhere, see tag), but he now makes the most confident album of his career.

In a quartet setting he essays post-bop and nudges towards the avant-garde, but also delivers classy ballads with a warm tone which at times recalls Paul Desmond (of Dave Brubeck's famous group).

So with one foot in the past and one assuredly in the present Ravi Coltrane is a jazz musician neither bound by convention nor weighed down by the expectations of the family name.

That is quite some achievement.