My Shining Hour

For a jazz guitarist, Bobby Broom hasn't shown enormous interest in making a studio album of songbook standards. His output typically involves original tunes and off-kilter covers, with a boomerish sense of crossover appeal. So My Shining Hour due out on Origin on Tuesday, represents both a nod to convention and a deviation from the norm. It's also among the most satisfying jazz guitar albums likely to emerge this year. Mr. Broom, 53, gets a firm but mellow sound out of his archtop guitar, and he has a beautifully relaxed sense of phrase. His trio, with Dennis Carroll on bass and Makaya McCraven on drums, operates with supple intensity, committing not only to the rhythmic gear shifts on "Just One of Those Things" but also the leisurely walking-ballad tempo of "My Ideal." And Mr. Broom - who's currently on tour opening for Steely Dan, with a different trio - delivers solo after solo of breezy articulacy along with some ingeniously plotted melodic moves. (His arrangement of "The Jitterbug Waltz" is sure to be studied by jazz guitarists in training.) Five years ago he released a live album that covered similar bases but suffered from a crowd-noise problem; this one, which he produced with the engineer Jonathan Horwich, could hardly sound more present or alive.