JEAN-LUC PONTY - Jazz Long Playing (1964-2000) Jazz In Paris 43 / RM / FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

These 1964 sessions marked jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's recording debut as a leader. In spite of his choice of instrument, he was mainly influenced by bop musicians (especially saxophonists and trumpeters) rather than fellow Frenchmen, swing violinist Stéphane Grappelli. At this stage in his career, he chose mostly compositions by European musicians of his generation, along with tunes American jazz compositions that had stood the test of time. His angular playing in Martial Solal's "Une Nui Au Violon" contrasts with his later venture into jazz fusion, while his dash through Charlie Parker's "Au Privave" is almost immediately halted to first showcase drummer Daniel Humair then flautist Michel Portal before he takes center-stage with a blazing solo. He also is quite comfortable in a ballad setting, with a warm treatment of Django Reinhardt's "Manoir de Mes Reves," though it is on his own turf, as it isn't played anything like Grappelli's recording with the legendary guitarist. The violinist's sole original is "YTNOP Blues," which opens with a pizzicato vamp then showcases bassist Guy Pedersen and pianist Eddy Louiss before Ponty finally opens things up with a slash-and-burn solo that evokes a bit of Stuff Smith influence for a moment. The only misfire is a dull treatment of "I Want to Talk About You" which is plagued by Louiss' dated sounding organ. Reissued as a part of the Jazz in Paris series in 2000, this valuable introduction to Jean-Luc Ponty has already lapsed from print.  by Ken Dryden  
Tracklist  
1 Une Nuit Au Violon 4:43
Written-By – Martial Solal
2 Modo Azul 4:38
Written-By – Jef Gilson
3 Spanish Castles 3:40
Written-By – George Gruntz
4 Sniffin' The Blues 3:28
Written-By – Jef Gilson
5 Postlude In C 3:21
Written-By – Raymond Fol
6 Au Privave 3:45
Written-By – Charlie Parker
7 Manoir De Mes Rêves 3:05
Written-By – Django Reinhardt
8 YTNOP Blues 3:10
Written-By – Jean-Luc Ponty
9 I Want To Talk About You 3:48
Written-By – Billy Eckstine
10 A Night In Tunisia 3:02
Written-By – Dizzy Gillespie
11 Satin Doll 4:20
Written-By – Duke Ellington
Credits
Double Bass – Gilbert Rovère (tracks: 1 to 4, 6, 9), Guy Pedersen (tracks: 5, 7, 8, 10, 11)
Drums – Daniel Humair
Flute – Michel Portal (tracks: 2, 6)
Organ – Eddy Louiss (tracks: 4, 9, 11)
Piano – Eddy Louiss (tracks: 1 to 3, 5 to 8, 10)
Violin – Jean-Luc Ponty
Nota :
Recorded June And July 1964 in Paris.
Reissue of the Philips LP 77 810 Jazz Long Playing.  

EMILE PARISIEN QUINTET WITH JOACHIM KÜHN — Sfumato (2016) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The French jazz scene has a vitality, an originality and a do-it- all and do-it-anyway mentality about it right now. It is French musicians who are blazing the new trails for contemporary European jazz. There is a wonderful open-mindedness towards all musical cultures, genres and tendencies; and yet French musicians also give off the sense of having a proper grounding in their own tradition. A musician who represents all of these tendencies ‘par excellence’ is saxophonist Emile Parisien. Born in Cahors in the wine-growing region of the Lot, he is a jazz visionary. He may have one foot in that ancient soil, but his gaze is firmly fixed on the future. The leading French newspaper Le Monde has called him “the best new thing that has happened in European jazz for a long time,” while the Hamburg radio station NDR made the point of telling its listeners to give Parisien their “undivided attention.”

The reference points on Parisien’s personal musical map are very widely spread indeed. They range from the popular folk traditions of his homeland to the compositional rigour of contemporary classical music, and also to the abstraction of free jazz. And yet everything he does has a naturalness and authenticity about it. Rather than appearing pre-meditated or constrained, his music has a flow, he traverses genres with a remarkable fleetness of foot and an effortless inevitability.

What is it that makes the simple urgency of Parisien’s music quite so enjoyable? How does he manage to combine a provocative and anarchic streak with such a captivating sense of swing? Anyone who has seen and heard him on stage will know: it is because he lives his jazz with body and soul, because there is an authenticity and honesty inflecting every breath and every note.

The track “Clown,” in which the playing of Vincent Peirani is to the fore, led to the following reflection from Parisien: “Because the melodic line in our music is so strong and prominent, we can improvise with a fantastic degree of freedom. From our background in jazz, the build-up of intensity is something completely natural to us, but we also dip into the language of the European free scene, and we have the common backdrop of traditional music, and of rock and pop as well.”

Parisien didn’t have to hang around on the scene very long before the awards started arriving. He picked up Artist of the Year in both of the most important jazz prizes in France. He received the Prix Django Reinhardt in 2012 and then the Victoires du Jazz in 2014. In Germany in 2015 he received the ECHO Jazz Award for Best International Ensemble for the passionate virtuosity of the duo which Parisien has with his close friend and musical brother-in-arms, the accordionist Vincent Peirani.

His regular quartet has been working together for more than ten years and played countless concerts all over the world. So perhaps it was the right time to try something new. A re-formed quintet had its very first try-out at a ‘carte blanche’ session at the Marciac Festival in 2015. Parisien was understandably keen to use this opportunity to work with that great pre-eminence of German jazz Joachim Kühn, not least because of the Leipzig-born pianist had worked for many years in a trio with a musician who had been another of the key figures along Parisien’s path to success, the veteran drummer Daniel Humair, in whose quartet Parisien is a regular member.

Kühn’s long and distinguished career has found him in establishing working relationships with saxophone greats such as Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders. This time, the reeds master he is working with is almost forty years his junior. That age difference didn't stand in the way of an instant creative symbiosis between them: the sparks started to fly in the concert hall from the get-go. With his new band-mates, guitarist and rising star Manu Codjia, bassist Simon Tailleu and drummer Mario Costa, they traversed through free improvisation, found moments of coruscating energy, painted emotional pictures in sound, as they discovered the volcanic energy, humour and sheer quality in each other...a new band was born.

“Sfumato” is the result of what happened once this dream team found their way into a studio. In addition to Peirani, French jazz legend and mentor to Parisien, Michel Portal, joins the ensemble. What results is a group which brings generations together to create a sound-world rooted in the here and now.

This is music in which the untrammelled imaginations of players and of listeners can roam in complete freedom, and will experience the joy of new discoveries. ACT
Tracklist :
1. Préambule (Emile Parisien) 5:41
2. Poulp (Emile Parisien) 7:40
3. Le clown tueur de la fête foraine I (Emile Parisien / Julien Touéry / Ivan Gélugne / Sylvain Darrifourcq) 4:08
4. Le clown tueur de la fête foraine II (Emile Parisien / Julien Touéry / Ivan Gélugne / Sylvain Darrifourcq) 5:48
5. Le clown tueur de la fête foraine III (Emile Parisien / Julien Touéry / Ivan Gélugne / Sylvain Darrifourcq) 2:55
6. Duet for Daniel Humair ( Emile Parisien & Joachim Kühn) 3:19
7. Arôme de l’air (Joachim Kühn) 8:22
8. Brainmachine (Joachim Kühn) 4:05
9. Umckaloabo (Emile Parisien) 5:06
10. Balladibiza I (Emile Parisien) 6:50
11. Balladibiza II ( Emile Parisien) 4:22
Line Up :
Emile Parisien - Soprano & Tenor Saxophone
Joachim Kühn - Piano
Manu Codjia - Guitar
Simon Tailleu - Double Bass
Mario Costa - Drums
Guests (on 3, 5 & 9):
Michel Portal - Bass Clarinet
Vincent Peirani - Accordion

JACKY TERRASSON — Gouache (2006) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Pianist Jacky Terrasson's 2012 album Gouache is an eclectic, playful, and often beautiful album that showcases the pianist's lithe, technically adept jazz skills alongside a handful of guest artists. Terrasson is a gifted composer and improviser in a variety of jazz idioms, from straight-ahead, standards-based jazz to more contemporary and even avant-garde styles. He brings all of this to bear on Gouache. While Terrasson's virtuosic piano chops are the focal point of the release, it is also his choice of excellent sidemen here, including trumpeter Stephane Belmondo and bass clarinetist Michel Portal, that helps make the album such a buoyant and joyful listen. This is especially true on his ruminative version of John Lennon's "Oh My Love" and the positively swoon-inducing Erik Satie chanson "Je Te Veux," which both feature vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. Winner of the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, Salvant is a gifted, nuanced singer and here, singing in both French and English, she draws upon the languid, bittersweet influence of Billie Holiday, while always keeping a smile in her voice. Jazz pianists reworking modern pop songs has become de rigueur in 21st century jazz circles, and so Terrasson's choice to cover Lennon, as well as such radio hits as Justin Bieber's "Baby" and Amy Winehouse's "Rehab," isn't in-and-of-itself unique. However, with his painterly, impressionistic style that often brings to mind a mix of such influences as Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, Terrasson is an interesting match for this kind of pop repurposing, and his reinventions never sound anything but clever and inspired. To these ends, he turns "Baby" into a jaunty sleigh ride of song, with a euphoric '70s R&B ballad midsection. He also gives "Rehab" a slow, Horace Silver-sounding jazz-funk treatment that finds him moving from piano to Fender Rhodes. Elsewhere, Terrasson's original compositions reveal a passion for melody and groove, paired with an adventurous, flowing, stream-of-consciousness post-bop aesthetic that ultimately makes Gouache a pure joy to hear. Matt Collar  
Tracklist :
1 Try To Catch Me 4:07
Composed By – Jacky Terrasson
2 Baby 3:22
Composed By – Justin Bieber
3 Je Te Veux 5:25
Composed By – Erik Satie
Lyrics By – Henry Pacory
4 Rehab 3:55
Composed By – Amy Winehouse
5 Gouache 5:20
Composed By – Jacky Terrasson
6 Oh My Love 4:48
Composed By – John Lennon
7 Mother 6:50
Composed By – Jacky Terrasson
8 Happiness 7:42
Composed By – Jacky Terrasson
9 Valse Hot 4:06
Composed By – Sonny Rollins
10 C'est Si Bon 6:05
Composed By – Henri Betti
Credits:
Bass Clarinet – Michel Portal
Double Bass – Burniss Earl Travis II
Drums – Justin Faulkner
Electric Bass – Burniss Earl Travis II
Fender Rhodes – Jacky Terrasson
Flugelhorn – Stéphane Belmondo
Percussions – Justin Faulkner (tracks: 10), Minino Garay
Piano – Jacky Terrasson
Trumpet – Stéphane Belmondo
Vocals – Cécile McLorin Salvant

MICHEL PORTAL - Arrivederci le Chouartse (1980-2002) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

This live date is a reunion of the reed and drum duo of Michael Portal and Pierre Favre that so freaked out French audiences in 1972 there was a televised debate about live improvised music. However, this time there is the addition of the formidable bass talent of Leon Francioli, a player of such distinction and diversity he is equally at home playing the music of Thelonious Monk or Hans Werner Herze. Playing in front of an audience for the first time -- there had been only two rehearsals -- Portal and Favre hadn't played together in years either; in Switzerland of all places, that feeling was obviously in the air because it can be heard here, that something unexpected was about to happen. It starts like an out improv date with "Arrivederci" with odd whispered rhythms played against an improvised bowed bass slipping along, trying to find a place to begin. The bow saws slowly and quickly from register to register, finding the trace of some ancient melody to bring in before tripping on as Favre kicks up the heat just a notch. Nothing else much happens except the tension of the ambience until about three minutes in when Francioli tags tough with a bit of "O Tannenbaum." Bass and drums continue to toy with one another, turning up the tension level until five minutes in, the atmosphere tight as a wire, Portal enters with an elegantly bluesy "Take the A-Train," improvising alone off the beauty of this cadence. When the band moves in to take him up on it, they slip through post-bop and modal territory like well-rehearsed schoolboys at exam time, all the while looking for the proper syntax to being the exploration. With Portal blowing the blues the way he is, there is little else to do except mine the emotion he lays out. Finally, there are a series of long singe notes, and the improvisation commences in earnest. Rhythm, melody, and harmony -- in almost the same manner as Bill Evans, Paul Motian, and Scott La Faro used them -- become a challenge. They are not to be undone so much as unwound, granting room for dissonance and subtle, yet fickle tonal sonances that normally find their way into only most extreme blowing sessions. Here, all three players share the rhythmic concern, grooving together in this unwinding musical sprawl where overtone and interval questions encounter melodic ones in the process of swinging through in mode and rhythmic meter. It's amazing, really. Semi-quavers appear every third or fourth interval, and the mode changes, as does the harmony. It's all jazz, but it's all improvisation. The swing is definitely the thing as bits of everyone from Ornette Coleman to Dave Brubeck find their way into the floating, slinky twists and turns this trio takes each other through on their way to someplace nobody's been yet. For 32 minutes, "Arrivederci" rolls on, with Francioli playing some deeply funky Horace Silver lines on the bass. The next two works are actually an improvisatory suite, "Le Chouartse," of about 35 minutes in length. Portal gets out the clarinets and puts them to work with the saxophones in a rhythmic counterpart to Favre. There is polyrhythmic in his embouchure before any melodic or harmonic idiom is established. The evidence for the confusion is the lack of Francioli's presence until about three minutes into the track when he realizes the rhythmic line Portal is playing is the melody. Once he's in, and Favre is using his hands all over his muted toms toms, the fun begins. This suite is a trip down the rabbit hole but without Alice and in the dark. It steams, and whispers, shouts, screams and coos with six sets of rhythms all playing against each other at once, Portal accomplishing his with microphonics à la Pharoah Sanders -- but on bass clarinet. There are long periods of near silent communication happening during this work, but when the dynamic changes, so does everything else, the notion of jazz tradition -- i.e., melody, rhythm, and harmony -- has been reinvented, extended to include dissonant harmony and fragmented modal ideas in its rhythmic concepts, thus, opening up an entirely new space for the definition of melody as an extension of rhythm which is the next extension of harmony. A truly remarkable session, one that should be far better known than it is. by Thom Jurek  
Tracklist:
1 Arrivederci 32:36
2 Le Chouartse I 17:52
3 Le Chouartse II 18:42
Credits:
Bass – Léon Francioli
Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Michel Portal
Composed By – Léon Francioli, Michel Portal, Pierre Favre
Drums, Percussion – Pierre Favre

SUSANNE ABBUEHL – Compass (2006) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Susanne Abbuehl startled listeners in 2001 with her debut release, April, in which she took on the poems of e.e. cummings, and created lyrics for a Carla Bley composition. A studied and original vocalist -- she worked with Jeanne Lee -- she is also a solid composer. Her aesthetic and restrained approach lend themselves easily to Manfred Eicher's production M.O. On Compass, Abbuehl and her band, which features the wonderful clarinetist Christoph May, dig deep into the words of James Joyce, William Carlos Williams, and the music of Sun Ra and Chick Corea. The project is once more refined and mannered yet utterly ambitious beginning with her original composition "Bathyal." Here May's bass clarinet introduces Wolfert Brederode's piano that is given dimension by drummer Lucas Niggli's brushed cymbal and snare work. Abbuehl's voice enters not as whisper but as soft yet full-throated, "Do not run just yet/Do not hide..." ushering in a call to wait and observe, to look around and be touched by the bloom of flowers, by the environs as a balm for a fallen heart. The rippling piano sends waves just above the lyric, and offers the listener a way in. On "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair," (a daring chance in a jazz setting after Patty Waters '60s recording broke all the rules), is not so much referential as reverential. She bases her read of John Jacob Niles' tune on Luciano Berio's folk song arrangement. It's nearly pastoral, but May's clarinet adds an eerie dimension, making it one of the most beautifully articulated versions on record. (She also translates another of Berio's folk songs gorgeously in the French traditional song "La Foliare.") Abbuehl's musical composition to accompany a section from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake is a slightly angular, with hand percussion accompanying the piano and bass clarinet. Likewise her composition for William Carlos Williams' poem Primrose is skeletal, slightly quirky and off kilter and fits Williams' taut poem like a leather glove. But it is in her own lyrics set to the music of Ra's "A Call for Demons," that the other side of her particular brilliance shines so brightly: taking Ra's suspended spatial approach, she economically creates a "call" to the forces of light and darkness that is seductive and bluesy, almost like a torch song, a lover's call. As May's clarinet whimsically touches the melody of Corea's "Children's Song No. 1," accompanied by shakers used ever so tautly and sparely, the piano enters and provides a harmonic backdrop for Abbuehl, Her singsong vocal embraces the whimsy but creates a new space for reverie and nostalgia that is not sophomoric but romantic and urban. Compass is a record of dreams and visions, shared sparely yet frankly with images and tensions subtly revealed, opening song into a netherworld that encompasses the balance of all things. It goes further than April, is more confident and assured, and Abbuehl's compositions and lyrics are the place of entrance and quiet revelation. Thom Jurek  
Tracklist :
1 Bathyal 5:46
Susanne Abbuehl
2 Black Is the Color... 4:18
Susanne Abbuehl
3 Where Flamingos Fly 4:53
John Benson Brooks / Harold Courlander / El Thea
4 Lo Fiolaire 3:43
Arranged By – Susanne Abbuehl
Music By [Based On "Folk Songs"] – Luciano Berio
5 Sea, Sea! 4:17
Susanne Abbuehl / James Joyce
6 Don't Set Sail 3:58
Translated By [Poem Transl.] – Arthur Waley
Words By [Poem By] – Feng Meng-Lung
7 The Twilight Turns from Amethyst 5:25
Susanne Abbuehl
8 Primrose 5:12
Susanne Abbuehl
9 Bright Cap and Stramers 4:37
Susanne Abbuehl
10 A Call for All Demons 4:44
Susanne Abbuehl / Sun Ra
11 Children's Song, No. 1 2:58
Susanne Abbuehl / Chick Corea
12 In the Dark Pine-Wood 3:03
Susanne Abbuehl
Credits
Clarinet – Michel Portal (tracks: 2, 4)
Clarinet, Bass Clarinet – Christof May
Drums, Percussion – Lucas Niggli
Music By – Susanne Abbuehl (tracks: 1, 5 to 9, 12)
Piano – Wolfert Brederode
Producer – Manfred Eicher
Voice – Susanne Abbuehl
Words By – Susanne Abbuehl (tracks: 1, 10, 11)

ALAN SILVA AND THE CELESTRIAL COMUNICATION ORCHESTRA - Seasons (1970-2002) 2CD / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Don't let the miserable packaging of the reissue on CD deter you from purchasing this remarkable gargantuan effort by bassist and composer Alan Silva, for which the term "masterpiece" is not too far a stretch. The original three-LP set has been compacted to two full-length CDs. Unfortunately, there are no liner notes, and you may need a magnifying glass to decipher the list of more than 20 participating musicians, who read like a who's who of avant-garde jazz at the time this was recorded. As there are no individual tracks and the "composition" is more than two hours long, there is also reproduced from the LP a detailed time log listing the instruments at any particular moment. Unfortunately, the log is virtually useless as it corresponds to the six sides of the original LPs. That aside, this is a magnificent, rambling, chaotic, lavish, and often meandering spectacle that should be heard in one sitting to be completely appreciated. It takes the concept of "sheets of sound" to the next level. Even with its deficiencies, it is a spectacular presentation, with snippets of melodies (or more precisely, riffs) interspersed among the soloists, who include Silva, Steve Lacy, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Robin Kenyatta, Michel Portal, and Joachim Kühn, to cite the more recognizable names. The results are absolutely thrilling, if not always inspiring, and there are many high points. While individual improvisers are difficult to identify, the level of improvisation remains consistently at the highest levels. It is wild and free, and the listener receptive to free improvisation is likely to be held in rapturous attention. Destined to be a classic of its genre, Seasons offers a full-scale radical bombardment from many perspectives, resulting in a smorgasbord of delights. While listening to so much at once is a challenge, the patient listener willing to put in the effort should be fulfilled and rewarded amply.  by Steve Loewy 
Track Listing - Disc 1
1     Seasons    1:10:38
Alan Silva
Track Listing - Disc 2
1     Seasons (Continued)    1:12:50  
Alan Silva
Credits
    Alto Saxophone, Clarinet [Clarinets] – Michel Portal
    Alto Saxophone, Flute – Robin Kenyatta
    Cello – Kent Carter
    Cello, Celesta – Irene Aebi
    Drums, Percussion – Don Move
    Drums, Percussion, Performer [Bronte] – Jerome Cooper
        Leader, Bass, Violin [Electric], Sarangi [Electric], Performer [Arc, Ressort (Bow & Spring], Instruments [Two French Electroacoustic Intruments], Composed By, Arranged By – Alan Silva
    Piano – Dave Burrell, Joachim Kuhn
    Saxophone [Saxophones], Flute [Flutes], Oboe – Roscoe Mitchell
    Saxophone [Saxophones], Flute, Bassoon – Joseph Jarman
    Soprano Saxophone – Steve Lacy
    Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute – Ronnie Beer
    Timpani, Percussion – Oliver Johnson
    Trumpet – Alan Shorter
    Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Lester Bowie
    Trumpet, French Horn – Bernard Vitet
    Viola [Electric] – Jouk Minor
    Violin [Electric] – Dieter Gewissler