This is an interesting record. But then Kenny Werner always makes interesting records. This is his eighth for the Half Note label. As a pianist-composer, he might not figure on many people's top ten favourite lists, but he always writes interesting tunes and chooses interesting musicians to work with (he's recently toured with the great tenor saxophonist David Sánchez), who always seem very happy to work with him. This is a particularly good band, which started out as a Kenny Werner Quintet, but after rehearsals started quickly became a Coalition. Miguel Zenón, as always, eats up the diverse music, which includes four contrasting originals including the calypso-ish ‘Tune 4’ by Werner and one of Zenón's own most challenging (‘Phonetics #2 (Folk Dance)’). The remaining title is by the quite astonishingly good Benin-born Lionel Loueke, who handles guitar and bass in the group. His lengthy ‘Flying’ is the killer track, complete with vocal electronics and a great melody. Of Werner's tunes, the 12-minute ‘Swan Song’ is a largely out-of-tempo ballad, which elicits poignant solos all round, while the closing ‘Wishful Dreaming’ is an exciting exercise in 3/4 playing. Denmark's Koppel, perhaps most striking on mezzo-soprano sax, interacts beautifully with Zenón and Hungarian drummer Nemeth is excellent throughout, with strong percussion work on ‘Phonetics’. As stated, an interesting record!