The Big Friendly Album is what it is called and that is exactly what it is. London-based trumpeter/cornetist and composer Laura Jurd's fourth album under her own name is a big hearted, gorgeously lyrical, feel-good romp, which does not preclude cerebral engagement but which wears its complexities so lightly that one barely notices them.

Jurd last came to the attention of All About Jazz during The Great Pause, with the release of the perfect little masterpiece To The Earth (Edition, 2020), her third album leading her quartet Dinosaur. She gave us an interview then, which can be read here.

The Big Friendly Album draws from folk traditions, particularly those reflecting Jurd's Scottish heritage, but filtered through a jazz sensibility. Also heard are the blues and the occasional splash of alt-rock. The album was planned, says Jurd, as a move from the concert hall to the street, and the three-horn frontline (cornet, euphonium and tuba) is arranged to accentuate the informal vibe. On the opening track "Fuzzy," however, it is the joyous abandon of a New Orleans marching band cutting loose that is evoked, rather than that of a Scottish one. As noted, the feel-good factor does not deny cerebralism and Jurd's composing incudes bitonal passages and asymmetrical time signatures, the first easy on the ear and the second in no way a hindrance to toe-tapping forward motion. "Passing Clouds" brings an interlude of gentle melancholy midway through the album.

Jurd, who plays acoustic and electric piano in addition to cornet on some tracks, leads a sextet completed by