Nature has been a consistent source of inspiration for Wadada Leo Smith throughout a long, illustrious career. This collaboration between the legendary trumpeter and no less legendary pianist-vocalist Amina Claudine Myers, both of whom are pivotal members of Chicago’s AACM, takes up the theme once again.

One of New York’s premier public spaces, Central Park, is the subject of the music, and the duo captures its tranquility through ballads that often have a heartbreaking tenderness, as well as moments of invention that bring a range of nuance to the colour palette.

Smith’s trademarks - the glowering sustains; carefully controlled descents and glinting muted timbres - are particularly effective against an equally vivid but often more economic style from Myers. Her work in the low register of the keyboard, from which she draws warm, gospel-flavoured harks that are particularly effective on ‘Central Park At Sunset’, is remarkable, but so too is her marvelous touch on the organ, which makes the intensely moving ‘Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir’ a gem at just under two minutes in duration. As for ‘Albert Ayler, A Meditation On Light’ it captures the deep spiritual charge of the saxophone icon, channeling energy towards a kind of serene wordless psalm. A sumptuous offering from two masters.