Sir Sultry is an LA-based jazz quintet led by guitarist and vocalist Ethan Margolis. On this recording the intent is to blend the improvisational solos of jazz with flamenco rhythm and harmony, hence the title, which fuses Soleá (one of flamenco's deepest and oldest styles) with the Angeles that is the "A" of LA. Fittingly, on a recording that purports to create a fusion of the two musical traditions, two recording studios were used, one in Los Angeles and another in Seville in southern Spain's Andalusia region.

Margolis is hardly the first to attempt such a fusion as Miles Davis was experimenting — highly effectively, it must be said — along similar lines back in the late 1950s. Soleángeles is successful in parts: "The Fool" is wistful, more jazz than flamenco perhaps, but with a bittersweet Andalusian feel. "La Referencia" is more straightforward in approach, with flourishes of rapidly strummed guitar and plenty of musical chiaroscuro in the best flamenco tradition, the impassioned vocal only coming in three-quarters of the way through its eight minutes playing time.

To these ears, despite its undoubted sincerity and adherence to flamenco tradition, Soleángeles seems more redolent of south California than southern Spain. This is not really a criticism and may simply be due to a lack of the rough edges that are normally associated with "authentic" flamenco. Saxophones, and flutes — in the West Coast jazz tradition especially — tend to come with their own musical baggage and, on tracks like the inconsequential "Love Bubbles" for example, can come across as a bit too "cocktail jazz" for the raw emotions of flamenco. The title track itself gets the balance about right, with staccato piano and drums behind an adventurous roving saxophone, but elsewhere it can sometimes seem as if feeling has been sacrificed for the sake of seamless "fusion". A little more raw emotion would probably be no bad thing. This album is anything but raw — it is as smooth and refined as a glass of amontillado — but given that the musicianship is excellent throughout it is highly listenable nevertheless.