Afro-Cuban pianist, composer and bandleader Fonseca played a blinder at EartH in Hackney last December, buoyed by the same trio that features on this current ninth album and revelling, it seemed, in the praise that continues to vindicate a work that combines everything from jazz and classical music to rap, funk, reggaeton and electronica – specifically, Head Hunter-ish wigouts on Moog, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Fender Rhodes – and is held to be the album he always wanted to make. Having repeatedly established his roots in the Afro-Cuban tradition, and continued to lay out his jazz chops at international festivals and an ongoing residency at La Zorra y el Cuevo in Havana, Fonseca stretches out across 13 original tracks, sounding free and more in charge, than ever before. Heavyweight guests Joe Lovano and Ibrahim Malouf lend their redoubtable brass stylings to the bop-flecked ‘Vivo’ and ‘Kachucha’, with its meld of Afro-Cuban styles, but it’s the guest vocalists who really help give the tracks their wings. Rapper Danay Suarez is admirably fierce on ‘Cadenas’, a funky standout; the dark romanticism of opener ‘La Llamada’ is given further texture by the sweet, sensuous vocals of all-female group Gema 4 and Fonseca’s own gruff vocalese proves an effective instrument throughout. The organ-led funk-salsa excursion ‘Mambo Pa La Niña’, with its Dr. John-at-aahouse-party vibes, is suitably celebratory - this is Fonseca's greatest effort so far.