Less glamourous but not less of a privilège where the three evenings I spent just two weeks later in the Café Laurent room of the Hotel d’Aubusson in Paris.
The musicians I heard –ten of them in all- were unknown, or virtualy so : yet they demonstrated in resplendant, edifying and gut-swinging fashion the unique joys of live jazz. The leader and absolute stalwart was pianist Christian Brenner : he was variously joined by bassists Gérard Prévost, Juan Saubidet and Pierre Stéphane Michel ; drummers Jean-Christophe Noël and Olivier Robin ; tenorist Greg Lyon and flugelhornist Damon Brown (both british) ; guitarist Jean-Philippe Bordier and vocalist Sonia Alvarez.
Jazz journalAcross the six sets witch I caught, the level of invention, drive and accomplished musician-ship was wonderfully High ; so were the toughtfulness, care and delicacy of their work.
Brenner has résonances of Evans and Brubeck in his playing, yet in indisputably his own man. His style crackles and sings, and he has major gifts as an arranger too : his répertoire is prodigious, and brings to each tune an individual, discerning craft. Both drummers were superb- Noël played an entir trio set with brushes only, recalling the gréât Ed Thigpen in his ability to swing in incendiary fashion while remaining a model of subtlety, while Robin was exemlary in his cripness and infaillible time. The two horns also impressed, especially on Ammons’s Red Top and Have You Met Miss Jones, while guitarist Bordier thrilled me with his rippling mellow liquidity ‘a quality I so love in Kenny Burrel’s playing) and his Montgomery-like cleaness of line.
And it’s a long time since I enjoyed a singer so much : Alvarez has rich sensual voice and a Vaughan-like range witch she deploys to near-perfection, swinging instinctively and deeply sensitive in her understanding of all th song’s lyrics. Particular highlights included Alvarez and Bordier on So Danco Samba and There Is No Greater Love : Brenner, Prévost, Noël’s Stella By Starlight and a wonderfully audacious Giant Steps taken molto andante ; and Lyons-Brown_Brenner-Saubidet-Noël’s closing If I Should Lose You, done as a brisk bossa nova ; Brenner was special here.
GUEST EDITORIAL by Richard Palmer (july 2006)
