January 2, 2017

Régis Huby 4tet

Equal Crossing
Abalone Productions AB 027

Having spent the past two decades or so leaping rabbit-like from one musical idiom to another, French violinist Régis Huby appears to have found the perfect creative outlet with the quartet that interprets this work. Composed by Huby as a three-movement, seven track suite, Equal Crossing is a musical edifice filled with sonic souvenirs collected by the Rennes-born violinist’s voyages along electro-acoustic shores with the likes of trumpeter Serge Adam and guitarist Noël Akchoté plus residency in the rooms of chamber-improv with stylists such as reedist Louis Sclavis and Quatuor IXI. MORE

December 29, 2003

GAËL MAEVEL TRIO

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