[1] In 1999, Hakim was a part of a jazz fusion project by Stanley Clarke and Lenny White.

The project, entitled Vertú, also featured such artists as Karen Briggs on violin and Richie Kotzen on guitar and resulted in an album of the same name that year.

But this quartet exudes a chemical energy which is invigorated by the jazz canon - without feeling shackled by it - to gaze ahead....Each player is at their unrestrained best.

From the potentially explosive timbral variety of Hakim which feeds the thunderous rhythms and eternal dexterity of Marthe, to the harmonic sophistication and (at times) Metheny-esque melodies served up by Rachel Z and Rosenwinkel.

The unit of Hakim/Marthe is the rhythmic driving force that tempers the conjuring of Z/Rosenwinkel: it preserves and strengthens the infectious nuggets of melodic and harmonic gold without compromising their complexity.