Immanuel Wilkins grasps a higher musical plane in The 7th Hand

The young, pithy-toned American saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins was 22 when he made his Blue Note debut with the much-praised album Omega. The all-original set captured the rhythmic bite of his working band, and included a four-part suite which Wilkins composed while still a student at Juilliard.

Two years on, his follow-up release confirms Wilkins’s grasp of long-form composition and finds his working band confidently swaggering. The recording presents a seven-part suite which takes inspiration from biblical symbolism: if the number six represents the limits of human possibility, Wilkins imagines how the band would sound if a divine force intervened, hence the album’s title, The 7th Hand.

Wilkins captures his idea by chipping away pre-composed elements until the final movement, a 25-minute epic based on just one written note. By the time we get there, Wilkins has probed harmony with an intensity worthy of John Coltrane and delivered melodies that are sweet on the ear. The rhythm section provides equal-partners support and flautist Elena Pinderhughes and the Farafina Kan Percussion Ensemble add textural variety and extra solo voices.

The suite begins with the twisty theme, pedal points and polyrhythmic swing of “Emanation”. Wilkins digs in, pianist Micah Thomas’s voicings are rich and Daryl Johns, solid on walking bass, knits his lines with the subtle rhythmic interplay of Kweku Sumbry’s drums. “Don’t Break” comes next, a lilting contrast of light-touch funk with a catchy tune and the percussion ensemble bringing the track to a peak.

Mid-set, the mood-piece “Fugitive Ritual, Selah” and the hauntingly smoky “Shadow” are both sustained by repeated soulful themes; here the band thoughtfully intertwine and short solos burst into life. The album’s ballad “Witness” is a densely textured feature for flute with a bittersweet vibe and the minimal theme of “Lighthouse”, the suite’s penultimate piece, delivers edge and bite at speed.

A short drone launches “Lift”, the long final track. Here the quartet freely move between expressionist phonics and low-volume rumblings until a single sustained note from Wilkins’s alto sax cues bassist Johns to end the work, centre stage.

★★★★☆

‘The 7th Hand’ is released by Blue Note