What fun good jazz can be! This is among the best, enjoyable and joyful post-bop music I've heard in a while. Canadian altoist François Carrier is accompanied by his usual companions Pierre Coté on bass and Michel Lambert on drums, with the great Bobo Stenson on piano for a live tour of Europe that took place in 2002.
Carrier's tone - as said before - is warm and sensual, his playing is expansive and lyrical, and the music is strongly indebted to Coltrane and Keith Jarrett's American quartet, with Dewey Redman coming to mind more than just once in a while.
The four compositions all come from his All'Alba cd released in 2002 (with Uri Caine on piano), but they get a totally, and in my opinion, better performance here. For one, the tracks are longer, allowing for longer development of the solos and more creative interaction. Second, Stenson has the kind of melodic fluidity that contrasts with Caine's more angular power, and that is actually a much better fit for Carrier's tone and playing. Third, the recording quality is better. with all four instruments incredibly well balanced, giving Coté and Lambert the full exposure they deserve.
Although less adventurous than some of the more recent outputs by these musicians, the playing is exceptional, truly "the music of life", let yourself float on the endless lyrical beauty this quartet offers.
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© stef
2 comments:
Very curious to hear this one. I checked out FC on YouTube and found some excellent music - often very melodic free impro (right up my street).
There's an excellent group with Sonny Greenwhich which is not a million miles away from Tony Malaby's Tamarindo, and also a few bits with Matt Maneri!!
Anyhow you've certainly made me curious to hear this one, however FC plays alto and soprano, so I'm interested to see/hear the Coltrane, Dewey Redman comparison - yes Dewey did play alto, but a while back.
Bonjour Stef,
Always nice to see a new production by Francois and colleagues. Very forward thinking musicians.
Jazz Frisson
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