Transversales Disques France レコード& CD

Review: Keys maestro Ahmad Jamal was something of a lost bebopper, giving penance to a genre that was otherwise mired in noodling and relentless velocity. Placing artistic integrity over the spotlight was a trait he maintained over the course of an entire career, earning him a reputation as something of a jazz angel. This repress of an early live show in Paris - backed by Frank Gant on drums and Jamil Nasser on double bass - effortlessly brings a trans-Atlantic mood across the pond from New York to France, with Jamal sternly prodding both the white-and-black ivories, and our moods.

Review: Gifted multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the height of his powers, backed by his Vibration Society, including long-term cohorts pianist Ron Burton, powerhouse percussionist Joe Habao Texidor, Dick Griffin on trombone, drummer Jerome Cooper and Vernon Martin on double bass. Five impeccable pieces are laid out and played out by the circular-breathing prodigy here, from the opening serenades of 'Sweet Fire' to the funking upstart seduction, 'My Cherie Amour'. A closing slave song satire, 'Volunteer Slavery', hears the stritch player go ham on a rapidly tempo-upping soul build, his singular sax seeming to dance and resound in every corner and cranny of the stereo field.

Review: Here's something to set the pulse racing of any serious jazz enthusiast: a recently rediscovered recording of a live performance made by the Pharoah Sanders Quartet at the Grand Auditorium at Studio 104, Paris, in 1975. The tenor saxophonist is undoubtedly the star of the show throughout, though the fluidity of the double bass playing, the loose-limbed drumming and the rush-inducing breeziness of the piano parts - especially on "Love Is Here" parts one and two, which reminded us of another Sanders classic "You've Got To Have Freedom" - are all equally as ear-catching. Musically, it's as inspired as you'd expect, nestling somewhere between the great maestro's greatest "astral jazz" recordings and more traditional forms of jazz.