The eminently worthy idea is to celebrate the pioneers Pozo and Gillespie together, and the resultant album gets off to a good start with a convincing medley of their three co-compositions, namely ‘Tin Tin Deo’, ‘Manteca’ and ‘Guachi Guaro’. Equally, it closes on a high note with Chano's own ‘Ariñañara’, and another spirited item is the ‘Groovin’ High’ which has an arranged quote from ‘Four’ (by Miles and Eddie Vinson). Some originals pale almost inevitably by comparison, but there are instrumentals of two fine songs, the Cuban standard ‘Siboney’ and Ivan Lins’ ‘Nocturna’. Blanchard is by far the most enterprising soloist, playing on straightahead chord-sequences for the first time in a while, but Sanchez and his fellow percussionists cook up a head of steam that needs to be heard. What with the digital recording and all, the overall impression is somewhat antiseptic – perhaps I'm just nostalgic for the dedicatees themselves, complete with 78rpm surface noise (don't forget that Chano died as long ago as 1948). That apart, this is an excellent and frequently exciting album.