Heidi Tann previews her album Silk n' Soul with the single Coffee On Your Sleeves

Heidi Tann has put out Coffee On Your Sleeves, the first song from her coming album Silk n' Soul, and it is built around a guest. Saxophonist Tony Exum Jr. plays across the track, from the horn-led opening through to the groove underneath the verses, and SoulTracks has named the song a choice cut.

The record is about the early stage of a relationship and stays there. "You've got me dancing in my chair, snapping fingers in the air," runs one line, which is about the emotional register of the whole thing. An acappella break lands mid-song and is the only moment the arrangement stops moving.

Tann has spent the past few years working in a sound drawn from the soul and jazz radio of the 1980s and 1990s, the sophisticated end of it rather than the loud end, and has been building a chart presence both on her own and in collaborations. Chris Rizik at SoulTracks called Coffee On Your Sleeves her most confident statement so far.

The production is credited to Bobby Gomez and LaVelle Powell, with Exum on saxophone, Bruno Nesci on guitar and Frank Reina on drums. SoulTracks singled the backing out as the thing that lets her voice carry the song rather than compete with it, which is the whole design problem in this style.

The album title, Silk n' Soul, sets the expectation clearly enough, and no release date has been given for it yet. This is the first material from it to reach the public.

SoulTracks had already flagged her earlier this month, when it premiered the song as a first listen, so the choice cut selection is the second look rather than the first.

Coffee On Your Sleeves is streaming now. It sits with the rest of the month's rnb-soul and jazz releases on the release calendar.