City of Poets is a French-American exchange project inspired by themes from the American sci-fi author Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. Musically speaking it draws from Olivier Messiaen's seven ‘modes of limited transportation’. But this isn't essential information as a guide for listener's expectations; the suite written by the French pianist Cédric Hanriot and internationally renowned east coast star trumpeter Jason Palmer isn't the kind of cerebral opus that the background inspiration might suggest. As with much of double bassist and Whirlwind Recordings boss Michael Janisch's Euro-US collaborations, the emphasis for the set recorded live at the Soho Pizza Express in September 2014, is on sophisticated jazz that sets up a challenging harmonic and rhythmic vehicle for a handful of hardcore jazz men to blow the hell out of. The live sound production is of a high quality and resonates with the live atmosphere, the tones of Maria Schneider sideman/tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin and Jason Palmer aces in the pack. It's contemporary angled post-bop of a high level rather than highbrow.