London-born, but steeped in music ranging from his father’s highlife and calypso and his mother’s Edo (Nigerian state, capital Benin City) lullabies, not to mention his siblings’ Tamla Motown, soul and pop, Aimua Eghobamien has produced, in the appropriately named Poured Gently, a wide-ranging, heartfelt album with its roots in jazz but also drawing on a rich variety of other sources, musical and literary.

It begins with an intense, intimate visit to an e. e. cummings poem, and ends with an Edo-language blessing, but it also contains material that will be entirely familiar to jazz listeners: a touching version of the Thad Jones/Alec Wilder classic ‘A Child Is Born’, a warm and languorous visit to Duke Ellington’s ‘In a Sentimental Mood’, and peppily adventurous workouts on Thelonious Monk’s ‘Rhythm-a-Ning’ (lyrics by Jon Hendricks) and another Ellington staple, ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)’.

Eghobamien’s voice is rich and sure, relying for its considerable effect on its resonance and timbre rather than on vocal pyrotechnics, and with spare, unfussy but sharp backing from pianist Glafkos Kontemeniotis, augmented by bassist Ed Kollar, drummer Scott Neumann and percussionist Bashiri Johnson, Poured Gently is an absorbing and original set, intelligently programmed and elegantly performed.