Originally broadcast by French radio in 2018, this album by what was then Manuel Valera’s new trio was scheduled to be released in 2020. But the pandemic put paid to that and after a limited release in 2022, it is now appearing in the UK from the Belgian Jammin’ColorS label. The Cuban-born pianist has made a reputation for himself in New York, and works with the highest echelons of musicians there.

This album mixes a handful of standards with Valera’s own compositions, and sadly the standards don’t come off too well. Jimmy Van Heusen’s ‘Darn That Dream’ loses much of its innate beauty, which has made it such a powerful and popular piece during its 85-year life. Monk’s ‘Evidence’ is given such an angular, spiky treatment that it is barely recognisable, and I doubt Fred Astaire would immediately spot the theme of Cole Porter’s ‘All of You’ which he inaugurated in 1954.

More successful by far is the affectionate treatment of fellow-Cuban composer Osvaldo Farres’ ‘Tres Palabras’, maybe better known to Anglophone listeners as ‘Without You’ from Disney’s 1943 film Music Maestro. But where Valera really scores with this collection is in his own music.

As any trio would on a live broadcast, the band dips into his back catalogue and the opening version of ‘Mercury’ from his Planets album (which had just been issued at the time of recording) is a fine and absorbing piece, as is the dramatic and contrasting ‘Neptune’ from the same project, ushered in by Whitfield to great acclaim from the audience, and then developing brilliantly with fine interplay between the three musicians. The remaining originals on this half of the album are hugely rewarding and repay repeated listening.