“We must pay tribute to the jazz greats like Coltrane, Holiday, Mingus, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, and carry on their legacy of bringing attention to the real issues of modern society through jazz music,” says Grammy-winning pianist and composer Arturo O'Farrill, who does just that on his new album, Four Questions.

The quartet of themes are provided by the great civil rights activist and author WEB Du Bois in his seminal 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk.

The central, titular piece here features the talents of political activist Dr Cornel West. O'Farrill has compared West's oratory to a Trane solo, his rhythmic delivery to the tumbao of Mongo Santamaría, his humour to ‘Charlie Parker in flight’, and his authenticity and Afrocentricity to ‘Thelonious Monk's right hand’.

He's quite the speaker, then, and when he's paired with The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, as here, there's fire and music in his words. There are other voices on the album too: a choir conducted by Jana Ballard on ‘A Still, Small, Voice’, a response to the 2008 financial crisis. The big themes are matched throughout with big, muscular, exuberant music.

“I've never been more outspoken on the role of art and artists to be journalists and journey-ists,” says O'Farrill. “We have a sacred obligation to observe the horrors of this moment in America and to take those listeners who have ears to hear on a journey of hope and action in the midst of such darkness”