Pérez is now quite clearly willing to part with the standard structures of modern jazz and, by association, Latin jazz. He has loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar, and everything from his playing to his arrangements and song structures have opened up. Live at the Jazz Showcase reveals a group no longer willing to repeat the obvious. The marriage of Latin rhythms and jazz improvisation is still there. It simply winds its way through crooked back roads rather than marching in fours and eights down the paved main street.
That magnificently calibrated ear of his does much more now than facilitate the adventures of other musicians. With drummer Adam Cruz and bassist Ben Street, Danilo Pérez leads listeners into satisfying explorations of the outer edges of his musical territory.