The kind of cliches that get rolled out about recordings that speak about ‘a fusion between East and West’ don't cut it at all with the Grammy-nominated Turkish pianist-composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol.

Based in the US since the mid-1990s, having originally studied jazz at Berklee, Sanlikol is not by any stretch what you would call a world music or even world-jazz artist. He has led ensembles from a broad musical spectrum from Turkish orchestral classical, chamber and choral music through to small ensemble/big band jazz.

On his new recording An Elegant Ritual, Sanlikol fronts a piano trio with a unique take on contemporary jazz that is an organic exchange of Brazilian, latin and fusion-y post-bop influences with Turkish, Sufi as well as more far eastern music traditions. Sanlikol's elegant wordless vocal is frequently present and inhabits a distinctively intriguing soundworld for his instantly memorable original themes. In synch with his piano solos, Sanlikol also scats in the spirit of artists such as Milton Nascimento, Richard Bona and Lionel Loueke with perhaps a nod to Tigran. But it comes with its own unique twist that involves the impassioned tonal inflexions associated with Sufi invocations.

Structurally, the album is mostly influenced by whirling dervish cycles and the conceptual framework of A Love Supreme. Traditional instruments from various cultures are introduced: the drummer George Lernis' gongs ring out a hypnotic mantra informed by Gamelan music, creating a far- rather than Middle Eastern otherworldliness alongside Sanlikol's lyrical piano that's inspired by an Avishai Cohen-esque mix of latin, middle eastern-inflected jazz and classical. On the compellingly processional title track, Sanlikol improvises on an arabic flute-like ney in haunting microtones. He signs off with the only non-original on the album, a version of Bronislaw Kaper classic ‘Invitation’ that's something of an anti-climax, a little too resigned in tone. There's scarcely a weak moment otherwise.