For his debut album, bassist Tarik Hassan assembled an outstanding quartet that features Rex Gregory (saxophones), Austin Johnson (piano, Rhodes) and Simon Lott (drums). Vocalist Johnaye Kendrick also joins the ensemble, lending her impassioned stylings to three of the nine originals on Hassan’s self-titled endeavor. The album, while cool on the surface, uncovers a warm, emotionally charged core driven by Hassan’s profound composition and the group’s expressive, improvisational interplay.

Akin to a contemporary version of the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet, this band plays with an understated intensity, a deep connection to one another, and a subtle mastery of the jazz lexicon that speaks not of their virtuosity as individual players, but to their strength as a collective. Together, the tandem of Gregory and Lott shapes the album’s contours and impels its melodies while the rhythmic playing of Hassan and Johnson colors its contrasts and enlivens its phrases.

The tune “Colorblind,” with its chilled theme and funky, creeping groove, sizes up both hard-bop and hip-hop as it shifts into an air of modern-day cool. Gregory’s brisk flights and Johnson’s radiant soaring on the mysterious “Slinga” provide some of the album’s best moments, but it’s the vibrant pulse, energetic rush and organic interaction found on “Mid-Citizen” that truly showcases the unique synthesis of sounds coming out of the Crescent City today. Hassan’s two ballads, the poignantly melancholy “Malene” and the soulfully somber “That Long Brown Hair” highlight his depth as a composer as well as the band’s as an ensemble. As the album settles onto the serene, uplifting “St. John’s River,” Hassan’s subtle touch and the group’s elegant rejoicing leave a lasting imprint.