DAVID BUCHBINDER AND ODESSA/HAVANA

Walk to the Sea (Tzadik) (out of 4) Walk to the Sea first seems like a jazz version of an ethnic TV sitcom where a culturally disparate couple — macho Cuban pianist/composer Hilario Durán and suave Toronto trumpeter and flugelhornist David Buchbinder — keep a robust musical marriage going years after getting together in 2007 for Odessa/ Havana, their initial Jewish-Cuban fusion release that became such a critical hit. With Walk to the Sea, equal time for both is seemingly established from the two opening tracks where the Klezmer groove on Buchbinder’s “Coffee Works” is followed directly by Durán’s funky arrangement of “Landarico,” a traditional tune based on the exploits of a legendary Sephardic knight. But, psst, here’s the skinny. Walk is mostly Buchbinder’s baby. His compositional prowess, abetted by Roberto Occhipinti’s production, takes the CD to a level higher than just a feel-good exercise in cultural bonding.

“La Roza Una” and “La Roza Dos” — both co-written by Buchbinder and lyricist Lina Kohen Albukrek, and sung with immense soul by Maryem Hassan Tollar — give Walk the richness to rank among the year’s best in jazz.

The album grows deeper in feeling with a following pair of Buchbinder pieces: “Valentin,” with a moonlit melody that’s almost Chopinesque, and his sashaying “Calliope,” with its commanding soloing by saxophonist John Johnson.

The ending track, “Conja,” a Durán arrangement interpreted majestically by Tollar, is on its own worth getting Walk to the Sea. Peter Goddard