Now 69, Joachim Kühn has held the mantle of Germany’s pre-eminent jazz pianist for several decades now with good reason. Not one to settle for the comfortable life of virtuosic recapitulation that overtakes many well-known jazz musicians of a certain age – playing in the style that originally brought them to the attention of the jazz world – Kühn remains ever the curious experimenter. Voodoo Sense represents his fourth collaboration with Moroccan guembri player Majid Bekkas and Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez that has pushed his music in unexpectedly new directions, not least in the way in which he embraces melody and legato expressivity in his playing (‘Crossing the Mirror’). Here he brings together, if not a cast of thousands, then six guests, including Archie Shepp (who appears on three tracks), the latter putting in a moving performance on the ballad ‘L’Eternal Voyage’. However, the album’s real impact is the Afro-Arabic grooves that underline Kühn’s willingness to embrace fresh directions.