Along with the likes of David Virelles, Dafnis Prieto and Edsel Gomez, Ortiz is part of an aggregation of Cuban musicians whose references and sources of inspirations are as much avant– garde as mainstream. One could say that the grand symbol of that here is the reprise of Ornette's ‘The Sphinx’ as well as Monk's ‘Skippy’, but of greater importance is the overall conceptual richness of the set, above all the abundance of arrangements that pursue roads less traveled with commendable trickery. Standing out here is ‘Caribbean Vortex/Hidden Voices’, a song that wears its title well. Based on a beguiling rhythmic pattern that subverts the age-old clavé by way of renegade groups of one, three and four beats that are daringly isolated, the piece has the most beckoning, mysterious of atmospheres, something which is enhanced by Ortiz's fraught, whirling ostinato phrase where one may have expected a singing melody. It's not a million miles from Virelles’ work, but Ortiz favours a denser ensemble sound, with a lot of finely wrought low register detail from himself, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Gerald Cleaver. Ortiz is a musician with an enviable CV – Greg Osby, Terri Lynne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding etc – but he is yet to make a substantial international breakthrough as a bandleader. This album, with its well-calibrated blend of danceability and unpredictability of form, not to mention responsive accompanists, should raise his profile.