Monday, October 5, 2015

Walabix Invite Bart Maris (Becoq, 2015) ***½

By Stef

The French quartet Walabix consists of Quentin Biardeau on sax, Gabriel Lemaire on sax and clarinet, Valentin Ceccaldi on cello, Adrien Chennebault on drums, and on this album they have Belgian guest trumpeter Bart Maris to join them. The music by this French quartet starts with composed and structured pieces, that become more and more open and free form with each performance, giving an overall result that sounds like free jazz, but is actually quite anchored. The result is fascinating and fun.

The sound of the band is extremely rich and sumptuous, grand and expansive, offering many different approaches to each song without losing the overall coherence, giving the impression that the album is one long suite, accessible and free. It is a real find, this band. I will try to unearth more of their albums.

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Available from Instantjazz.





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