Moses Patrou is a jazz drummer from Nashville, but even that odd teaser doesn’t begin to describe the depth and breadth of his CV; he learned at the metaphorically funky feet of Clyde Stubblefield, the James Brown drummer who gave the world the “Funky Drummer” backbeat. He’s studied with the finest percussionists of both Brazil and Cuba.

He’s played with brass bands and hip-hip groups. He was teaching drums to students in New York when 9/11 happened and to New Orleans students a week before Katrina. And that’s just the beginning.

So while it might seem surprising that his first album, a two-man-band collab with jazz guitarist Ben Sidran, was a straight R&B jam, it really shouldn’t. To journeymen like Patrou, the beat is the thing.

His second joint is more like an EP, which may account for the stopgap title. It’s also more organic: whereas Introducing Moses Patrou was mostly Moses and Ben bouncing ideas off each other, he has a full band now and the new arrangement takes enough responsibility off of his shoulders to really let him open up on his instrument.

The songs are still mostly jams built around phrases as bare bones as possible: “Song for My Friend,” “Who Will Be There?” and “Funky Music” aren’t much lyrically deeper than their titles. Doesn’t matter; they all sound as if the Meters had gone to Memphis at their most potent point and gotten some of that Hi Records shine. Swelling jazz organ, fat beats, and lots of soul.

Moses Patrou may not have more on his mind than “R&B as it was meant to be,” as he claims in the press kit, but if he doesn’t stop—exploring, that is—Vol. 2 might come off even better.