Freight Train. Kathy Jordon, Liam Noble, Paul Clarvis.

Here’s an unexpected trio producing delightful results. Singer Cathy Jordan is a leading light on the Irish folk scene and came together with Paul Clarvis and Liam Noble for a lockdown project commissioned by Jazz West Midlands in mid-2020. The remotely recorded meeting, still accessible on YouTube, was so successful they came together again in the studio to add to the playlist.

Noble contributes characteristically exploratory piano, ranging from spare but oblique obligato to rhapsodic intros as the mood takes him, with some electronic additions on the studio tracks. Clarvis, as ever, generates impetus with minimal effort, even at impossibly slow tempos.

Together they furnish warm support for the vocals, challengingly exposed in this setting. Jordan delivers the songs straight, in a light but beautifully accurate voice that handles jazz rhythm as if she has always leant that way.

Overall, it sounds as if these three have a thoroughly good time playing together: and so does the listener.