Albare comes from the French pronunciation of Albert, the guitarist/leader's first name, and iTD from ‘International Travel Diary’ to represent the ‘cosmopolitan backgrounds and global aspirations’ of this group – or so say the press notes that accompany this album. Albare, born in Morocco and raised in Israel and France, moved to Australia where he performed on the acid jazz scene as a guitarist. But his claim to fame was as producer of the Melbourne Jazz Festival in which role he was awarded an Order of Australia for service to the arts. However, I doubt that even Albare imagines he will be giving Jim Hall, Pat Metheny or Russell Malone sleepless nights with his playing, since the main interest in this album lies in the contribution of his more lauded confrères working out on fairly mediocre material. But if you are a successful festival director it must have been fun to act out your dreams.