It's a sad state of affairs that when Perdomo tours Europe with his own trio he is unable to get any gigs in the UK. He is unquestionably one of the most consistently creative pianists in jazz today, having earned unanimous respect from his long tenures with Ravi Coltrane and Miguel Zenón. This is his fourth CD for Criss Cross. Gerry Teekens always lets him record with whomever he wants, people not necessarily from his usual surroundings. To perform his six-tracked suite Spirits and Warriors he's chosen the ubiquitous Sipiagin with whom he's never played before and veteran tenorist Mark Shim, whose highly individual, muscular sound has never had the exposure it deserved and the incorrigibly youthful septenagarian Billy Hart. ‘Face Up’, ‘Her Eyes’ and ‘Year One’ stand out from the suite, which is followed by a strong feature for Shim (Clifford Jordan's 1972 ‘Glass Bead Games’ classic), a trio working of Hermeto Pascoal's ‘Little Church’ with Okegwo displaying all the reasons he'd been picked for this date and finally, an absolutely beautiful rendition of ‘Portrait of Jenny’ featuring Sipiagin at his most eloquent.