We first heard Barcelona-born, now Brooklyn-based bassist Cuadrado when he recorded for the Brooklyn Jazz Underground label. The album in 2009 was called Noneto Iberico.

He now has five albums as a leader to his credit, the most recent being also on Sunnyside and a classic of its kind, A Lorca Soundscape, mixing jazz, new music and flamenco and featuring the voice of Claudia Acuna and the alto of Miguel Zenón. This latest effort is a sort of Spanish contemporary update of the jazz and spoken word concept. Mateu and Phillips are ‘deep and dark’ modern poets, both connected to Catalan culture, with Mateu really multi-lingual, speaking Portuguese, Spanish and English. Their poems reflect the feelings of those from Spain whose lives are taken over by the cultural changes and noise of New York, but still remembering their origins. Cuadrado is an excellent bassist as well as composer and if the poetry isn’t to your liking, the tracks certainly should be.

Okazaki is the kind of guitarist that Miles Davis seemed to discover, Milne's multi-keyboard work is of constant interest and Sorey's drumming colours everything. But it is Cuadrado, with his beautiful rounded sound and lyrical solos, who links it all together.