Jazz saxophonist Blaine Whittaker launches new album in Hong Kong

Six years is a long time between albums, but Blaine Whittaker's follow-up to his third album, 2008's Sound Barrier, is finally ready for release.

There has been a China-only album in the interim, 2011's Twilight, which features his saxophone playing but isn't really representative of his evolution as a composer, nor of his interest, already suggested by some of the tracks on Sound Barrier, in what he calls "urban beats".

"I didn't want to make another swing jazz album," he says. "I started getting deeper into composition, and this is the first album I've had with extensive vocals. I consider it my first real album. It's an urban sounding thing."

Strange Universe - mainly recorded at Village Studios in Guangzhou with some overdubs in Hong Kong, Canada and the US - features some of Whittaker's closest musical friends, including guitarists Guy Le Claire and Eugene Pao; vocalists Gigi Marentette and Angelita Li; trumpeter Theo Croker; and percussionist Robbin Harris.

Also featured on a version of Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine are Los Angeles-based producer and keyboardist Mark de Clive-Lowe, and New York-based singer Chris Turner.

The core of the performances is rhythm section The Big Small Trio, comprising bassist Scott Dodd, pianist Nick Bouloukos and drummer Nick McBride, who Whittaker calls his "favourite drummer", and with whom he has been playing regularly for about 25 years.