This recording had its genesis in 2003 as an award-winning academic research project focused on spirituality in jazz. It took this French saxophonist to New York City and ends in a trio recording alongside two present day New Yorkers, one of them being the excellent drummer Gerald Cleaver. Imbert's originals are framed by a vociferous version of Ellington ‘Echoes of Harlem’ and Coltrane's ‘Central Park West’. But in between, Imbert's originals pay homage to jazz sax history: from Bechet to Ayler including a tribute to the avant-klezmer of John Zorn's Masada. ‘Cloisters Sanctuary’ reveals a baroque element that surfaced on his previous Bach:Coltrane recording from 2008 and he passes through Ornette-influenced territory before playing a Roland Kirk-like unison two-sax trick on ‘Struggle for Manhattan's Life’. Imbert is a very outgoing yet eloquent saxophonist but his presence can be overpowering at times in such a naked trio setting as sax-bass-drums. Cleaver/ Martin's trance-like rhythm finely supports the spiritual context of the recording. It works pretty well on the level of history-of-jazz album even if it leaves the artist himself rather lacking in identity.