The line between inspiration and madness was never finer than in the improvised portions of post-bop jazz, where a player can temporarily take leave of his senses in pursuit of some abstract ideal. This occasionally happens on the present disc when pianist Danilo Perez gets his stormy ‘Late Romantic’ thing going and starts messing with cluster-chords.

At times it’s as if leader Wayne Shorter were playing against, rather than with, Perez. When it works, the excitement is considerable, climaxing spectacularly courtesy of Shorter’s superb rhythm team of John Patitucci (bass) and Brian Blade (drums). Between the lapses, there is some formidably searching music on this album, especially on tracks like “Masquelero” and “Aung San Suu Kyi”. Try it.