This is at times an emotionally exhausting but extremely impressive recording. Though he's recently been experimenting with a larger ensemble, this is Roney's basic quintet (Antoine, Ortiz, Carter and Abadey) plus guests on various tracks. The opening ‘Utopia’ is a hitherto unrecorded Wayne Shorter opus, very much in the mid-1960s ‘Footprints’ vein and of similar quality arranged by Roney, who, it's my understanding, has been presented with over 250 manuscript sheets of his close friend Shorter's compositions. There's another later in the CD called ‘Plaza Real’ (whose harmonic conception is inspired by a slow-tempo ‘Giant Steps’), which was first heard on a 1983 Weather Report album called Procession, but sounding very different to the way it is here. There's also a highly obscure John McLaughlin tune from his revived Mahavishnu Orchestra mid-1980s period (‘Pacific Express’), again bearing little or no resemblance to the original treatment. Roney himself has three originals – a heartbreakingly beautiful waltz (the title track), the somewhat ethereal ‘Dawn’, which has unusual changes and features Carn on organ and, opening and closing with Bird's clarion call quote from ‘Parker's Mood’, the self-explanatory ‘Evolution of the Blues’. The one standard, ‘Ghost of Yesterday’, has solos all round that that have a similar bitter-sweetness to Lady Day's poignant vocal version. So much for the carefully chosen material. But even stronger is the impact of the band's interpretation. The brothers breathe as one and Wallace's solos are as strong as anything he's yet recorded, both on the ballads and the exciting up-tempo tracks. Antoine again reminds us how very underrated he is with forceful, ever-interesting harmonic ideas, always loaded with feeling. Aruan Ortiz has brought lots of fresh ideas to the group (especially on ‘Utopia’) and is part of the absolutely brilliant rhythm section with the also underrated Rashaan Carter and the startlingly contemporary drumming of Kush Abadey. Indeed, the three different drummers are all incredibly good (listen to Green on ‘Plaza Real’) and Boston legend, Tony Williams' friend Bobby Ward who closes a wonderful album with a no-nonsense unaccompanied drum solo.