Though usually associated with London’s postmillennial jazz scene, Alabaster DePlume’s music has almost nothing to do with jazz as most of us would understand it, save its premium on freedom and personal discovery—a thread that connects it to everything from Charlie Parker runs to Alice Coltrane meditations. Conceived as a means to “heal myself and own myself” (his words), A Blade..’s mix of therapy talk (“Thank You My Pain”), English folk (“Invincibility,” “Prayer for My Sovereign Dignity”), mournful saxophone melodies (“Oh My Actual Days”), and neoclassical composition is so earnest in its sentiment—but so playful and theatrical in its delivery—it almost feels like a put-on. But as the album goes on, that starts to feel like the point: Healing might be goofy, but that doesn’t mean we can afford to avoid it. Self-help, meet self-aware.