A seven-year hiatus, and Grammy-winning conguero Poncho Sanchez gifts us a masterwork that partly explains where he's been; if you're going to celebrate the life and legacy of the great John Coltrane, with whom 67-year-old Sanchez has been obsessed since childhood, you take your time getting things right. And does he ever: over the course of three classic Coltrane compositions – ‘Liberia’, ‘Blue Train’ and ‘Giant Steps’ – a clutch of classics including Ellington's co-written ‘The Feeling of Jazz’ (which the Duke recorded with Trane in 1962) and new compositions written in the late tenor master's honour, Sanchez and his nice-piece percussion-rich crew display the infinite possibilities of Coltrane's oeuvre with trademark swagger and sabrosura. As the liner notes point out, the spiritual vibe and sheets of sound so often associated with Coltrane are less visible here. But the precise arrangements, focused solos and propulsive group work nonetheless celebrate the man and underscore the extent of his influence. Sanchez, then, is beating his own drum, much as Trane would have wanted it, with ‘Giant Steps’ given a mambo treatment with breakneck congas, snappy breaks and careening piano, and ‘Blue Train’ unfurling with a cha-cha-cha and trombonist Francesco Torres’ quote from ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ in his opening solo. The sizzling-onall-cylinders ‘Poncho Sanchez Medley’ sees the conguero laying it down, and closer ‘Todo Termino’ is akin to a praise song, with guest vocalist Norell Thomson singing, you feel, to the ghost of Trane himself.