The second piece is "Yemaya Olodo", a prayer to the goddess of the sea (Yemaya) in the Yoruba religion. Hilario Durán sets the mood, sensitive and mysterious. His daughter Yailen Durán stands poised and ready to sing at centre stage. Joaquin Hidalgo, eyes closed, stands before the bata drums. Drama grows with the volume of Hilario’s chords and the swirling fingers of his right hand. The voice enters, the piano quakes deep and we are drawn into the whirlpool, sinking into the richness of the sea. A clear strong female voice. An extended trumpet solo. Voice and drums, back and forth. Saxophone solo. We end where we began. Powerful magic.

Next is a Guillermo Baretto hit from the sixties whose title translates as “I’m having a lot of fun”. And we all do.

A varied menu. Very Cuban. Very jazz. Very Hilario. Hilario can suddenly switch from a percussive Latin piano pattern to a stride style but what is most interesting about him is how seamlessly he can merge various jazz and traditional Cuban styles. Hilario remains true to the spirit of Cuban musical traditions yet moves forward with the evolution of modern melodic, harmonic and rhythmic sound. He can play with great subtlety and with great fire but his dramatic flourishes are always essential to the music and never gratuitous displays of virtuosity.

This kind of mixing engenders a sort of cross-fertilization among the musicians in the band. Alistair Kay’s solo and his musical conversation with fellow trombonist William Carn in “New Danzon” was riveting. Of course, Kay has played a broad range of music, from classical to his many years of big band jazz with the Boss Brass. But this was a new Alistair, or should I say Alistario?