The Somlai-penned title track finds the leader playing a funky figure on Fender Rhodes, an instrument where his percussive attack is very effective and adds a welcome component to the soundscape. The piece alternates between a Latin beat and a straight-ahead jazz swing section and features warm tenor work from Scott VanDomelen as well as some effortless bop trumpet lines from Jamie Breiwick. Jeno’s arrangement on Wayne Shorter’s “One By One” is very nice and clean. There’s a three-horn frontline (2 trumpets and tenor sax) and a three-man drum & rhythm section. That leaves a bassist and Somlai to hold the whole thing together, which the unassuming leader does very well.

It’s interesting that on the CDs most beautiful composition—one of Somlai’s first compositions at the keyboard—the haunting “Libby” Somlai plays drums, vacating the piano chair in favor or Mark Davis. It becomes a vehicle for some heartfelt solos from tt Van Domelen and Breiwick, not to mention pianist Davis. “Go East” is an effective little mambo number where again Somlai proves himself as a rhythmic driver at the keyboard. Everything just swings that little bit extra when Somali works his patterns into the mix, like some kind of Count Basie of Latin jazz. “Have You Met Miss Jones” is a sharp, fast arrangement that makes deft use of Latin rhythms and sounds like an outtake from Cookin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet. Breiwick turns in one of his best solo performances here, and Van Domelen also raises things a bit . Somlai again plays drums, this time giving the piano chair (and solo) to Steve Einerson, who fills the bill nicely.

“J.A.S.” is a major piece, with a start that utilizes a speeded-up James Brown drum/bass riff. The two horn front line plays over this rhythm, with Latin beats occasionally interspersed briefly. Then we’re right into Breiwick’s trumpet solo, backed by a funky but smooth electric bass line from Doug Ebert and Somlai’s nice Fender backing work (he works very well with the Fender Rhodes). He even cuts loose with a solo here, and acquits himself well. Not everyone can make the electric piano sound good. Many fall prey to the instrument’s natural tendencies toward indulgence, but Jeno Somlai does not. Somlai concludes the CD with an all-percussion feature, “Dejalo Ir” on which Robert Figueroa also offers vocals. It’s a nice ending to a CD that takes one deeper into the groove of Afro-Cuban music than one may have imagined possible in the space of an hour.