The ninth album for Grammy-winning Cuban-born drummer, composer and bandleader Dafnis Prieto is a well-crafted global winner. Larry Klein produces alongside the Latin Grammy-touting Eric Oberstein, for starters, and Grammy-bestowed Brazilian-born jazz chanteuse Luciana Souza - who just happens to be Klein’s missus – sings and scats her talented heart out. Prieto’s sometimes flashy, always nuanced drum patterns are here, slaloming in and out of Souza’s rapid fire vocalese on opener ‘Guajira en Sol’, soft-brushing on the languorous, multi-faceted ‘Sueño de Amor’, but its his hitherto unknown skills as a lyricist that ranks high on Cantar’s list of USPs. Songs sung in English, Spanish and Portuguese are subtly different (‘Like clouds and sky she holds a truth that no one can deny’ sings Souza, the co-writer, on the English-language ‘The Muse’), each with strengths of their own. Still, it’s on instrumentals such as ‘Unknown Man’ that Prieto shines, his skins vibing with keys, bass, percussion and woodwinds in ways free and focused; the wordless/instrumental ‘To the Concert’ finds Souza preceded by the compelling staccato musings of an uncredited (at least here) Indian kathak singer. A quality album, given an A-list team’s shiny polish – and one that might have benefitted from being just a little rougher around the edges.