Sarahbanda is a by-product of Berlin Philharmonic horn player Sarah Willis’s successful ‘Mozart y Mambo’ series, which she recorded in Cuba with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra. The septet’s personnel have changed slightly over the course of the project’s three discs, and it’s slightly different yet again here for the combo’s first recording on their own, although the formula (a mix of Cuban songs and dances, new compositions and Cuban takes on classical favourites) remains the same.

The horn is not typically found in a Cuban conjunto but Willis’s ability to blend with her Cuban colleagues has become utterly seamless. This is evident straight away in Juan Formell’s ‘Sandunguera’, an ’80s hit. The lyrics describe a beautiful Latina whose ability to dance and move causes her admirers to swoon. Willis, in a long solo, finds a relaxed groove, bending a note seductively here and there. She even throws in a lick from the Puerto Rican song ‘Capullito de Aleli’ with the ease of a seasoned jazz player.

The programme is a pleasingly balanced mix of upbeat numbers and ballads. I love the combo’s nocturnal take on ‘Chan Chan’, Compay Segundo’s wistful tune made popular on the first Buena Vista Social Club album (Nonesuch). Sarahbanda give the music an almost contemplative tone without losing its essential spirit as dance music. In Mozart’s ‘Romanza’ (an adaptation of the Larghetto from the Horn Concerto, K447), the melody floats sweetly over syncopated Cuban rhythms, while the Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen is playful as well as seductive, with enticingly enriched, jazzy harmonies.

Willis’s tone is ravishing throughout, and her Cuban colleagues don’t let her down. Violinist Aylín Pino brings touching vulnerability to Ernesto Lecuona’s La comparsa. Yuniet Lombida’s saxophone-playing is smooth as silk on his own easy-breezy Guajira sencilla. And pianist Jorge Aragón (who’s also arranged a few of the numbers) lets his imagination fly in an expansive and exploratory improvised introduction to Chucho Valdés’s Mambo influenciado.

Alpha’s stunning recording (made in a Berlin studio this time) puts you in the first row of a state-of-the-art jazz club. At a time when life seems to be increasingly complicated and stressful, Sarahbanda offer a welcome opportunity to swing, sway and simply float away.