Reviews that mention Jean-Jacques Avenel
April 3, 2021
Musique pour le film d’un ami
SouffleContinue Records ffl062
More than a trifle, but less than a major statement, Musique pour le film d’un ami is an attractive curiosity and the one time American-in-Paris Steve Potts composed the soundtrack for a film. The year was 1975, director Joaquín Lledó was a friend, and the now largely forgotten film was Sujet ou Le secrétaire aux 1001 Tiroirs, about a Spanish director trying to make a film in France. Dealing with soundtrack demands with themes ranging from one to a little more than six minutes, the 11 selections are by necessity a pastiche. MORE
December 13, 2013
Resurgence
RogueArt R0G-0049
Unafraid of rhythmic consistency and solos which groove rather than experiment, is this latest offering from Paris-based flutist Michel Edelin. Edelin, whose past collaborators include fellow woodwind players Nicole Mitchell and Steve Lehman, has composed 11 compositions that feature his subtle interaction with venerable saxophonist/clarinetist Jacques Di Donato, an academic who moves between notated and improvised music and is best-known for a clarinet trio he led with Louis Sclavis and Armand Angster. MORE
November 6, 2012
Crescendo in Duke
Nato 4375
François Houle
Genera
Songlines SGL 1595-2
François Houle/Benoît Delbecq
Because She Hoped
Songlines SGL 1592-2
By Ken Waxman
Paris-based, but as likely to turn up on North American as European sessions, pianist Benoît Delbecq is the very model of a cosmopolitan improviser. Often working with prepared piano and/or electronics, Delbecq specializes in cutting-edge interpretations, but his limpid playing also relates to a tradition that takes in Steve Lacy and through him Duke Ellington. MORE
July 29, 2009
Kuntu
Rogueart Rog-0019
Naming his CD for a Bantu word that describes the relationship among life elements, veteran French flautist Michel Edelin tweaks his lungfuls of air and embouchure so that the prissiness associated with his legit transverse instruments isn’t even imagined
Edelin, who over the years has led his own band and worked with advanced mainstream players ranging from drummer Daniel Humair to alto saxophonist Steve Potts, exhibits absolute control of the flute, alto flute and bass flute he manipulates on this CD. Plus he’s partnered by one of the most confident and experienced rhythm sections in Europe: bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel and drummer John Betsch, both of whom backed soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy until his death in 2004. MORE
November 1, 2008
Michael Bates’ Outside Sources
Clockwise
Greenleaf Music 09
Jeb Bishop/Harris Eisenstadt/Jason Roebke
Tiebreaker
Not Two MW 789-2
Francois Carrier/Michel Lambert/ Jean-Jacques Avenel
Within
Leo CD LR 512
John Heward-Joe McPhee
Voices: 10 Improvisations
Mode Avant 05
Expatriates or homebodies, Canadian improvisers interact with many first-class players from and in any country. The results can be imposing, even if there’s nothing intrinsically Canuck about the music. MORE
November 1, 2008
Jeb Bishop/Harris Eisenstadt/Jason Roebke
Tiebreaker
Not Two MW 789-2
Michael Bates’ Outside Sources
Clockwise
Greenleaf Music 09
Francois Carrier/Michel Lambert/ Jean-Jacques Avenel
Within
Leo CD LR 512
John Heward-Joe McPhee
Voices: 10 Improvisations
Mode Avant 05
Expatriates or homebodies, Canadian improvisers interact with many first-class players from and in any country. The results can be imposing, even if there’s nothing intrinsically Canuck about the music. MORE
November 1, 2008
Francois Carrier/Michel Lambert/ Jean-Jacques Avenel
Within
Leo CD LR 512
Jeb Bishop/Harris Eisenstadt/Jason Roebke
Tiebreaker
Not Two MW 789-2
Michael Bates’ Outside Sources
Clockwise
Greenleaf Music 09
John Heward-Joe McPhee
Voices: 10 Improvisations
Mode Avant 05
Expatriates or homebodies, Canadian improvisers interact with many first-class players from and in any country. The results can be imposing, even if there’s nothing intrinsically Canuck about the music. MORE
November 1, 2008
Voices: 10 Improvisations
Mode Avant 05
Jeb Bishop/Harris Eisenstadt/Jason Roebke
Tiebreaker
Not Two MW 789-2
Michael Bates’ Outside Sources
Clockwise
Greenleaf Music 09
Francois Carrier/Michel Lambert/ Jean-Jacques Avenel
Within
Leo CD LR 512
Expatriates or homebodies, Canadian improvisers interact with many first-class players from and in any country. The results can be imposing, even if there’s nothing intrinsically Canuck about the music. MORE
July 2, 2008
Steve Lacy-Roswell Rudd Quartet
Early and Late
Cuneiform Records Rune 250/251
Slightly deceptively titled this memorable two-CD set celebrates the four-decades-long collaboration between trombonist Roswell Rudd and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. The title is ambiguous because while four tracks are by the legendary 1962 Lacy-Rudd quartet, the remaining nine showcase the reconstituted partnership late (1999) and very late (2002) in its tenure – Lacy died in 2004.
Overall the quartet – featuring bassist Bob Cunningham and drummer Dennis Charles in 1962 and bassist Jean- Jacques Avenel and drummer John Betsch later on – performs the timeless repertoire that characterized Lacy-Rudd meetings in the intervening years: single lines by Cecil Taylor, Herbie Nichols and Rudd plus five originals by Lacy and a large helping of Thelonious Monk’s music, which the two championed years before its adoption by the repertory movement. MORE
June 20, 2005
Waraba
Songlines SGL SA1549-2
Resolved to establish his own identity beyond that of soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy’s sideman and beyond Free Jazz, bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel organized the part-West African/part-French band Waraba – or the lion – several years ago.
WARABA, the band’s debut CD, sketches out how combining improvisational currents from European free improv and the Manding world of Gambia, Guinea, Mali and Senegal can produce a unique blend that doesn’t call upon any so-called World Music cliches. Playing 10 traditional and original lines, the Avenel quintet produces a disc that’s uniquely its own – although non-Aficanists may prefer a little less sameness in the compositions and performances. MORE
January 19, 2004
The Beat Suite
Sunnyside/Enja SSC 3012
DEEP LISTENING BAND/JOE MCPHEE QUARTET
Unquenchable Fire
Deep Listening DL 19-2003
Blending music and texts -- either poetry or prose -- has never been a particularly easy task, especially when the music involved is improvised. Yet for the past 50 years at least, variations of the concept have been tried with various degrees of success.
Among his other sonic inquiries, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy has turned his hand to text-based material for many years; he has been able to utilize the voice of his partner Irene Aebi as his speaker/vocalist since the late 1960s. THE BEAT SUITE is his most recent grapple with the concept -- and one that is particularly apt. The words, which intermingle with the music here, were written by 10 of the most accomplished Beat versifiers. All had or have an affinity for improvised music and most were known personally by either Lacy or Abei. MORE
December 29, 2003
Danses Parallèles
Leo LE-376-CD
BRUNO ANGELINI
Empreintes
Sketch SKE 333037
Core sounds that are so deliberate as to verge on stasis and so subdued that they’re nearly soundless, French pianists Gaël Mevel and Bruno Angelini helm two trio sessions that are technically impressive, but cry out for variations in time and tempo.
One book written on Britain’s New Romantic Movement in pop music is entitled “As if Punk Never Happened”, and you can create a similar slogan for the piano music here. Mevel and Angelini seem to exist in a world where Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk and even Oscar Peterson never happened. It’s a polite world where clean, to the point playing is produced without telltale sweat stains and nothing is ever askew or out of place. But it creates output that’s so laid back and low key that it makes some of Bill Evans’ or Keith Jarrett’s more restrained efforts sound like the boogie woogie output of Albert Ammons or Pete Johnson. MORE
December 22, 2003
The Holy la
Sunnyside SSC 1120
Definitely not a misprint for the common expression “the Holy Land”, this fine trio CD takes its name from something held even more sacred by musicians: “la”, the pitch to which all instruments are almost always tuned.
During the course of these nine tracks, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy and his associates also prove that they can do just anything they want with any variations of “la” and the other degrees of the scale most famously celebrated by Rodgers and Hammerstein in the song “Do-Re-Mi”. MORE