Naïssam Jalal

Expanding her musical palate by compressing it in brief improvisations with one associate at a time, Syrian-French flautist Naïssam Jalal matches her Arabic-Jazz inflections with eight other distinct sounds. Bringing the same sort of transverse flutters and rhythmic vocalizing to this collection involving one bass players and seven others playing clarinets or saxophones, leads to absorbing and unexpected results.

Considering the world situation, strangely enough one of the most compelling tracks matches her with Yom, a French clarinetist whose sound is built on the Jewish and Klezmer music traditions. Her airy timbral flutters are stacked on top of his clarion warmth until his pinched variable go up the scale as her tones move downwards. The piece turns into a sort of lullaby where his woody shudders accompany her wordless vocalizing that sounds as much like davening as chanting.

From the opposite side of the equation, “Souffle #1” featuring American Archie Shepp playing tenor saxophone and vocalizing come across as quasi-Middle Eastern Blues, with Jala’s rugged flute flutters and melismatic vocal curves attaining the expressive groove missing from the saxist’s cracked voice.

Overall the timbral divergence arriving from darker-toned instruments like Louis Sclavis’ bass clarinet on “Souffle #7” or the trombone of Robinson Khoury on “Souffle #8” advanced the duos’ color field. That’s because tonal contrast provide more scope for individual expression  than when Jalal’s transverse  puffs intersect with the higher-pitched clarion tones projected by saxophonists on other tracks.

Khoury’s plunger blats that latterly create a percussive ostinato isolate the brightness of the flutist’s high and even higher pitches. A similar continuum from Sclavis’ chalumeau-register on “Souffle #7” create a tandem melody saved from flightiness by reed buzzing.

Packed into little more than half an hour these eight Souffles show how Jalal reacts to varied challenges and in concise arrangements. Expanding the more notable meetings over a longer time frame perhaps with a rhythm section added would be something to hear as well.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Souffle #5 Feat Thomas de Pourquery 2. Souffle #3 Feat Yom 3. Souffle #4 Feat Sylvain Rifflet 4. Souffle #7 Feat Louis Sclavis 5. Souffle #5 Feat Irving Acao 6. Souffle #8 Feat Robinson Khoury 7. Souffle #9 Feat Emile Parisien 8. Souffle #1 Feat Archie Shepp

Personnel: Naïssam Jalal (flute and vocal) with Robinson Khoury (trombone); Yom (clarinet); Louis Sclavis (bass clarinet); Emile Parisien or Irving Acao (soprano saxophone); Thomas de Pourquery (alto saxophone); Sylvain Rifflet (tenor saxophone) and Archie Shepp (tenor sax and vocal)