Pacific Mambo Orchestra is the sort of wish-list outfit Latinophiles dream about. On this third album, the West Coast juggernaut is powered by 50 musicians, a number demanding both tight direction and freewheeling imagination, traits the PMO displayed on their Grammy-winning 2012 debut and live sophomore effort. This time around co-directors Steffen Kuehn, on trumpet and flugelhorn, and keyboardist Christian Tumalan lend their bold, brassy aesthetic to a set list of impressive originals – singer Christelle Durandy's timba-tastic ‘My Carnival’ finds its creator in fine voice – and bold reimaginings. The Chaka Khan-associated ‘Through the Fire’ is the silkiest, courtesy of an arrangement by Tumalan and vocalist Armando Cordoba, and a lustrous sax solo by Doug Rowan, while Aaron Copeland's ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ is given requisite Latin flair and Dizzy's ‘A Night In Tunisia’ jumps with the inventive drum patterns of Dafnis Prieto and a trumpet solo by John Faddis. The standout track, however, is the audacious ‘Mambo Rachmaninoff’, which moves from Afro-jazz to salsa to classical music with the aid of a string quartet and Tumalan's breath-taking piano playing, on a swinging big band number all the more effective for feeling counter-intuitive. That it works – and how – is testament to an act at the height of its powers.