Anthem is a fierce album and a worthy follow-up to trumpeter Christian Scott’s widely hailed Rewind This. It’s such a mature album, both in Scott’s consummate playing and the worldliness of the compositions, that it’s hard to believe a musician in his early 20s recorded it. Could Scott be the future of jazz?

The album opens with “Litany Against Fear,” where Scott plays melancholy lines over layers of echoing guitar and piano. Scott seems to have delved into the post-bop Miles Davis, found inspiration and then refashioned that heritage for today. The sonic textures are closer to contemporary rock than most of today’s jazz, and while he owes a debt to rock and hip-hop, his playing always has a level of musical complexity that pop can’t match.

This is a post-Katrina album, marked by the flood and the violence that now mars our streets. Titles such as “Katrina’s Eyes” and “Cease Fire” allude to the storm and its aftermath, and on the cover, Scott stands on a street corner in front of a chalk outline marking a dead body. Unlike other Katrina albums, like Terence Blanchard’s A Tale of God’s Will, Scott taps into the daily reality of the city. He captures on Anthem a street-level view of life in New Orleans.