Doug Carn Jean Carn
Revelation

Beautiful jazz record by James Allsopp Quartet on Nostalgia 77's imprint Impossible Ark Records. Limited run of 300 copies.A moment of silence to respect the level of musicianship here. These guys really know how to talk to each other. Every topic in the album is maturely discussed. A group as tight-knit as this hasn't been heard since the 50's. Allsopp has a very specific sound that is solid like Getz and yet delicate like Desmond; a sound I can't put my finger on. The only way to put it is that he sounds like James Allsopp. I had no choice but to get the LP, where it has earned its spot here in Cali next to Baker, Mulligan, Pepper, and all alike. You'd be a fool to go on without it. A toast. Piste favorite : My One And Only Love

The Diva Faïrouz. Her real name Nouhad Haddad, she was born in the Zokak el Blat district of Beirut. The eldest of a modest Maronite family, she developed a passion for singing very early on. Her parents are too poor to afford the luxury of a radio, so she spends most of her time listening, her ear glued to the wall, to the neighbors. Nouhad quickly memorizes the songs she hears and gives a few samples at parties organized by her school. It was there that she seduced her comrades with her vocal abilities and that she was noticed in 1947 by the composer Mohammed Fleyfel. The echo of his velvety voice reaches Halim el Roumi, talent scout, renowned singer-songwriter and director of Lebanese Radio, who asks to audition him immediately. Literally fascinated, el Roumi introduced him to the choir of Radio Beirut, baptized it with the name of Faïrouz and became its appointed composer. Then, he introduces her to Assi el Rahbani, a young avant-garde composer who, in the company of his brother Mansour, wishes to renew a Lebanese song under profound Egyptian influence. The teenager Faïrouz succumbed to the personal charm of Assi, whom she married in 1954, and to that of his compositions (the model couple of Arab song would be separated by the death of their husband in 1986). The heavenly trio causes, from the publication of its first titles, a real musical revolution. Traditionalists howl at sacrilege and distortion while sympathizers of the rejuvenation and modernization of Lebanese folklore, weary of insipid refrains and pale copies, show their enthusiasm. In 1957, Faïrouz opened the International Festival of Baalbek (a locality mentioned in one of his flagship titles) and sang in the middle of the six columns of the Roman temple. This initial encounter with his audience, who warmly welcomed him, earned him the nickname "seventh column". Faced with this fabulous galloping success, the Rahbanis are stepping up their offensive and courageously playing the card of constant innovation. They wrote for Faïrouz musical sketches, operettas and, from 1962 to 1976, about fifteen sung plays in which she plays the role of a woman in love with Love, the true, the pure, the innocent. , and that of hope. She also appears in a few films but she quickly interrupts her cinematic odyssey. It is still and always one of the major references of Arabic song and many of its titles, such as "Bint el Chalabia", are hummed as much by the new generation as by the old.

The Los Angeles jazz underground would have sounded mighty different without Flight 17 - the first appearance on record of the legendary Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. the legendary band was famously lead by founder and mastermind, Horace Tapscott, and this seminal album is now finally back on wax for the first time in 40 years. The Arkestra brought totters the local creative community and gave them free rein to express themselves and boy did they do that. Tapscott's hard-swinging piano opens the reduced and there is no let up from there: this is hugely energised jazz from another dimension.

On June 3rd Gondwana Records present ‘Next Time Could Be Your Last Time’ – the debut album by Forgiveness, AKA Jack Wyllie, JQ and Richard Pike. Described as “not really jazz, not really new age, not really ambient or electronica”, instead they welcome you into a synaesthesia-inducing technicolour fantasy, full of wondrous emotive beauty.This genesis began with the sharing of music, burgeoning friendships, and the mutually-inspirational benefit of the collective power of a group dynamic, with each spurring the next on to heighten their already expansive skills.Intertwining the acoustic, electric and digital, utilising instruments and tools from across the decades, their synthesized Shangri La is a place where craftsmanship meets musicianship, even including sections notated on sheet music. The mood whilst recording, however, was one of loose freedom and enjoyment, with parts displaying a light-hearted playfulness. A world where shiny electronics meet flute and sax motifs, subverting them into something new.Jack Wyllie is best known for his work with Portico Quartet, Paradise Cinema and Szun Waves as well as collaborations with artists such as Luke Abbott, Adrian Corker and Charles Hayward. Whilst JQ has released on Boxed and Lo Recordings, with his music also remixed by Loraine James, Sun Araw and Foodman. Richard Pike has had multiple records on Warp as a member of PVT, collaborated with Modeselektor and Ital Tek, recorded under his alter-ego Deep Learning, and founded the tape label Salmon Universe, all whilst composing scores for TV drama.Wide-ranging influences on the LP include 70s era ECM and Miles Davis, Spencer Clark/Star Searchers, Ansel Adams, Steve Reich, H Takahashi, Don Slepian, The Blue Nile, Talk Talk’s ‘Spirit Of Eden’, Michael Gordon’s ‘Rushes for 8 Bassoons’, Sir Simon Rattle’s documentary ‘Leaving Home’, Horoshi Yoshimura, Ulla Strauss and Disasterpeace, plus new developments in vaporwave and software experimental.Hitting the centre at the ven diagram of these interests, the record converges the trio’s individual sound worlds into something singular. Primarily purveying a sense of endorphin-flushed tranquillity, they build synthetic, bucolic, lysergic landscapes, which although imbued with processed plasticity also contain multi-stranded depths of textural field.

A 75 ans, le contrebassiste n'a de cesse d'approfondir sa curiosité et son humanité, comme en témoigne son tout nouvel album avec un quintet soudé.