The first notes on Matt Carmichael’s new album, Marram, come not from his eloquent tenor saxophone but from the fiddle of Charlie Stewart, heralding both Carmichael’s second album but also a further stage in his fusion of jazz with Scottish folk elements, tying these strands together seamlessly, much as the marram grass of the album title binds sand dunes.

The album frequently invokes seascapes and the fast-rising young saxophonist and composer regards the sea as “a transportive element” with its calms and storms, and his band can generate corresponding elemental power as well as lyricism. For Marram, his group with pianist Fergus McCreadie, bassist Ali Watson and drummer Tom Potter – all of them award winners – has expanded to quintet format with the addition of fiddler Stewart, 2017 Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year, adding additional texture to an already lyrical yet dynamic group sound.

While Carmichael’s widely acclaimed first album, last year’s Where Will the River Flow, was self-produced, Marram, which receives its concert launch at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on 28 October, sees him joining his frequent collaborator McCreadie on the prestigious Edition label, which earlier this year released the pianist’s third album, Forest Floor, currently shortlisted for the Mercury Prize.

Like most of the band, Carmichael is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, its jazz course (established by saxophone star Tommy Smith, who describes Carmichael as “world class”) a catalyst for Glasgow’s astonishing crucible of young jazz talent. He became the first student to win all three of the course’s awards for composition, improvisation and arrangement, and it was during his first year there that he met Charlie Stewart.

“I love working with folk musicians,” says Carmichael. “Charlie’s a great improviser – not in the jazz sense, but from a folk perspective, and I really resonate with that.”

The album’s opener, The Far Away Ones, is initially based on a theme Carmichael wrote for a short animated film before building to an exuberant climax; Waves sees McCreadie’s gently rippling piano joined by sax to take on powerful momentum over Potter’s propulsive snares, while the title track is a wistful ballad somewhere between slow blues and Scotch fiddle air. “Sometimes the simplest tunes are the best ones,” muses Carmichael.

The enthusiastic reception which greeted his debut album extended to some influential quarters, not least the prestigious, Cologne-based WDR Big Band. Next thing, Carmichael found himself flying to Cologne to perform and record with them as guest soloist, his music having been arranged by its chief conductor, Bob Mintzer, saxophonist with the celebrated American jazz-fusion band the Yellowjackets.

“It’s not anything I could ever have imaged happening when releasing my first album and just getting started on my career,” admits the 23-year-old.

He’s been keeping busy, touring with the quintet in Germany last month, with Dutch gigs planned for February. Saturday 22 October, sees him playing Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in an international sextet, Dancing With Embers, he was invited to assemble as part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival's Autumn Series (see www.edinburghjazz.co.u k), involving, involving Norwegian pianist Liv Hauge and drummer Corrie Dick, among others.

Following the album launch, his quintet play Ronnie Scott’s on 3 November, and he plans further recording: “There are a few EPs in the works,” he says, “the WDR thing will come out at some point and I’d like to record a continuation of Marram.”

So the river flows on. In the meantime, he continues to gig with McCreadie in a duo format. With Carmichael’s current album titled after a shore grass and McCreadie’s called Forest Floor, one might speculate idly whether they’re establishing their own sub-genre of environmental jazz.

Carmichael laughs: “Not yet. Our music is quite linked but it’s also ever-changing. We have different influences and there are different directions we’ll be going in. But, yes, when it’s just the two us playing as a duo, we’re on the same kind of wavelength.”

For more information, visit www.mattcarmichaelmusic.com

Scots sax prodigy Matt Carmichael: 'Sometimes the simplest tunes are the best'