Fred Nardin trio, Live in Paris, Jazz Family ***

Classy pianist Frédéric Nardin - Fred Nardin - whose profile to Anglophone audiences is certainly less known than the expat US drummer Leon Parker here in the trio whose tenure on Columbia as a leader in the 1990s was superb and worth revisiting. …

Published: 3 Sep 2022. Updated: 19 months.

Classy pianist Frédéric Nardin - Fred Nardin - whose profile to Anglophone audiences is certainly less known than the expat US drummer Leon Parker here in the trio whose tenure on Columbia as a leader in the 1990s was superb and worth revisiting. Completing the line-up together for some five years who have put out a few recordings since starting up is Jerusalem-born bassist Or Bareket. As for Nardin he has been making records for around a decade as a leader and with his own co-founded Keystone big band and the pianist is a past winner of the Prix Django Reinhardt. 'Lost in Your Eyes' is the pick here from an elegant albeit very middle of the road modern mainstream player whose style certainly taps directly into the best traditions of acoustic jazz cloaked in bebop beginning on this album with a Monk classic 'Green Chimneys'. Parker adds a lot of spirit to the double album throughout. Nardin plays 'Nardis' - there's a thought. For Evans' sake regardless discover a player who the French are already justifiably proud of and who the wider world needs to catch up on pronto.

Fred Nardin photo: Philippe Levy-Stab

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Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Leo Genovese, Esperanza Spalding, Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival, Candid ****

With Wayne Shorter who turned 89 the other day no longer performing live for health reasons the jazz world thinks of him in an historical way. Certainly as a bona fide icon since the 1960s while he was still an active touring performer that was …

Published: 3 Sep 2022. Updated: 19 months.

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With Wayne Shorter who turned 89 the other day no longer performing live for health reasons the jazz world thinks of him in an historical way. Certainly as a bona fide icon since the 1960s while he was still an active touring performer that was also the case but there was a subtle difference. And certainly hearing him several times live over the years and even interviewing him face to face at the Dorchester once circa Alegría in 2003 proved a different feeling given that we were always expecting new music in the pipeline and no two albums were ever the same given the panoramic vision of Shorter the composer. I guess more and more archive releases will be released in the years to come beginning here back in 2017 on this live recording made at the Detroit Jazz Festival released on the revived Candid label in a line-up not heard on record before as a unit featuring drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, pianist Leo Genovese and double bassist Esperanza Spalding. Chief interest lives in the inclusion of Geri Allen's 'Drummer's Song' (a composition that appeared on the album Open On All Sides - In The Middle (Minor Music, 1987). Allen who had recently died was to have been the pianist on the concert date. Overall a feast for Shorter lovers. A concerto length 'Endangered Species', 'Encontros e Despedidas' and Shorter's 'Midnight In Carlotta’s Hair,' a piece included on the Grammy-winning 1995-released High Life album, are also among the selections. Spalding who since this recording has worked closely with Shorter on an opera is, like John Patitucci, an ideal bass line interpreter of his work, a crucial role in the sound particularly in this context.