As can be deduced from the details shown above, this album is an ambitious affair. It comprises two main works, the first a three-part ‘Concerto For Saxophones and Orchestra’, composed by Sierra and played by this Warsaw-based symphony orchestra with Carter as the soloist; the second, also by Sierra, entitled ‘Caribbean Rhapsody’, with Carter accompanied by the Akua quintet. He also plays a sprightly, unaccompanied tenor ‘Interlude’ between the two pieces and the album finishes with a similar soprano ‘Interlude’, also taken solo. So, a formidable bill of fare by any reckoning. Sierra is Puerto Rican and uses references from his youth in the opening passages of the concerto, with Carter nibbling at the motifs before erupting into a series of upwards runs and then subsiding. While Getz and Focus may come into the listener’s mind here, this is a far more abrasive and if anything, more complex enterprise, with Carter barking out the lines, against a backdrop of sudden drop-hammer orchestral punctuations, before moving into a pretty, lyrical section, his soprano soaring over sweeping strings. Hearing Carter live last year with Dee Dee Bridgwater prepared one for the sweep of his improvisatory powers, these certainly on display here, especially so in ‘Part 3’ which is called ‘Playful’ where Carter’s tenor evokes late-period Rollins. Overall, the effect is often sumptuous, at others, clamorous and fragmented.

If the interludes function much like a sorbet served between richer main courses, then the ‘Rhapsody’ is more akin to the icing on the cake. Sierra says it is his “Caribbean chronicle, recalling tropical colours and sounds, and the pulse of life that I knew growing up in Puerto Rico”. Maybe so, it’s softer and certainly more lyrical, with Regina Carter’s violin complemented by James Carter’s virtuosic soprano in a vibrant two-way improvisation. Exotica perhaps, but stimulating and lively. Will I play it again? Probably.