Brigitte Fontaine - "Comme a la Radio"

Brigitte Fontaine - Comme à la Radio

I-Tunes, France, 1971

Saravah

One of those great mood shifters, where France meets American avant-jazz that equals a French sensibility.  Magnificent percussion with the low sounds of a stand-up bass is a very seductive sound. Middle-eastern sounds creep into the framework, and Brigitte Fontaine is simply part of the landscape.  I often think of her as the French Grace Jones, due to her going into unknown territory with no fear.  The music is wonderful and The Art Ensemble of Chicago offers layers of sounds that suits Fontaine’s  voice perfectly.  Torch singing for the adventuress and those who lurk in the 3 AM night. 

Bobby Jaspar - "Jeux De Quartes" CD Album

Bobby Jaspar – Jeux De Quartes

CD, Album, France, 2002

Jazz In Paris No. 85

I am so location and time orientated, I often buy albums for that sole purpose. For instance here's a record recorded in 1958 and in Paris. That alone gives the album three stars, if I believed in that horrible system of talking about art. Also the fact that Kenny Clarke's name came up on the back of this CD, made this recording a must for me.

Bobby Jaspar, born in Belguim, played Sax and flute. He also composed compositions as well as being married to the great Blossom Dearie. A pal of Boris Vian, which makes this album part of the “Friends Of Boris Vian” collection I have on going. But getting to the music, what we have here is very much 'cool' jazz that's very European sounding. His take on the masterful “Misterioso” a composition by Monk has an original arrangement by Jaspar that shows off the master's great sense of loopy melody, but Jaspar makes it is own, with great drumming from Clarke. It borders on bad taste oriental-ism, but that is part of the fun of this arrangement.

Perhaps it is the nature of the flute, but the music is very soft for the ears, but the interplaying between Jaspar and the rest of the musicians (besides Clarke - Paul Rovére, Jymie Meritt, Humberto Canto, Sadi Lallemand, among others) is effortlessly steamed into a beautiful sound. Actually a nice album to get drunk to. 

Barney Wilen - Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions) CD Album

Jazz In Paris Series

Barney Wilen – Jazz sur Seine (Paris Sessions)

CD Album, France, 1958

Jazz in Paris, Universal Music (France)

The great French Tenor Sax player Barney Wilen backed by ¾ of The Modern Jazz Quartet. Instead of John Lewis, we have the great vibe player Milt Jackson on piano, which I think is unusual. Nevertheless a great band with a fantastic rhythm section of Kenny Clarke and Percy Heath. These recordings always bring out the romantic in me, because I imagine these guys playing in a Parisian nightclub with numerous beautiful woman dressed in black with their gangster boyfriends. Drinking whiskey and water, and very little dialogue. Well, I think the Universal Music label 'Jazz in Paris' feeds that image for us foreigners, who spend a great deal of time in front of the TV/Computer to watch French gangster films of the 1950's.

So Jazz sur Seine (original title is Jazz Sessions) is a beautiful snapshot of what I imagine was a perfect time when French Jazz musicians played with American greats. It's the meeting of these two cultures that somehow becomes one-of-a-kind expression of a love shared by the few. This particular album has songs by Wilen as well as by Django Reinhardt, Charles Trenet and Thelonious Monk.

The original Vinyl album (1958)

Art Blakey and Les Jazz-Messengers - "Au Club Saint-Germain Vol. 2"

Art Blakey & Les Jazz-Messengers – Au Club Saint-Germain / Vol. 2

Vinyl LP, Stereo Reissue, France

RCA

The grooves here are hard to deny, and the beauty of this recording is that it is done at one of Boris Vian's haunts in the Saint-Germain des Prés. The intimacy of the music with the crowd noise really puts you in a checkered table with a bottle of wine – and why I imagine that is probably from various episodes of Peter Gunn where Gunn sits at “Mother's” the jazz club in that TV show. I just imagine all jazz clubs looking like “Mother's.”

I don't know who Hazel is, but the fact “Moanin' With Hazel” she must have been or is quite a gal. The sensuality of that track rubs off the turntable into your hips and beyond. Of all the great Blakey albums that are out there, and god knows I haven't heard every one (at this time), Au Club Saint-Germain is my favorite, just due to the time of its recording (1959) and it has such a distinctive nightclub sound. And the playing is extremely tight, yet loose. Besides Blakey there's Bobby Timmons on piano, Jymie Merrit on bass, Benny Golson on tenor sax, and the great trumpet player Lee Morgan.