Some of this music was previewed during the London visit of sax giant Wayne Shorter’s regular partners Danilo Pérez (piano), John Patitucci (bass) and Brian Blade (drums) as a trio last year, and the album likewise emphasises the immense jazz experience and the effortless hipness with which they deploy it all. Inspired by the Lionel Messi-like ease with which Shorter can switch direction, the band do a lot of that without him – as in the title track, with its skippy theme, prodding Latin countermelody and loosely collective free-swing; or in the rhythm-games and contrapuntalisms of Sunburn and Mosquito and the closing number, African Wave. The stealthy, spacey Moonlight in Congo Square is like a very slow Thelonious Monk, Lumen is a Latin-funky Fender Rhodes groover, and the gospel-inflected Within Everything could be a Tord Gustavsen meditation. It’s very classy contemporary jazz from a trio who have learned to listen to each other in the most exacting context, though their relish for tricksy musical puzzles still occasionally gets in the way.
