Central Avenue

With his Afro-American/classically-trained pianisms, Perez does what his mentor, Dizzy Gillespie, did: He uses jazz and Afro-Latin rhythms to explore the world. He moves from the east Indian/Arabic tinges of "Blues for the Saints" and "Impromptu (Conversations)"; to the sly, Argentine/Afro-Amerindian chacarera rhythms on Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life"; and lands on the Cuban shore to the ancestral anthems of the guaguanco/abakua ritual drumming on John Coltrane's "Impressions," with Sousa's airy, wordless vocals.

Perez's love of Thelonious Monk is most evident on the slow, stealth-like melody of "Love in Five." On "Panama Blues," he swings an inventive jazz arrangement on an old folk melody rendered by Panamanian country singer Raul Vital, with Aquiles Baez on the cuatro; this arrangement showcases this pianist's ever-expanding and boundary- busting imagination. --Eugene Holley, Jr.