Johan Lindvall Trio, Give Up, Jazzland ***

Is it at all possible to stand out as a piano jazz trio playing in a fairly conventional modern-mainstream jazz style? It is. But it's difficult. There's a lot to like on 'Give Up' a riff-based track that has a loose feel eventually. This …

Published: 12 Oct 2021. Updated: 2 years.

Is it at all possible to stand out as a piano jazz trio playing in a fairly conventional modern-mainstream jazz style? It is. But it's difficult. There's a lot to like on 'Give Up' a riff-based track that has a loose feel eventually. This accessible piece from This is Not About You by Johan Lindvall, Adrian Myhr and Andreas Skår Winther contains a tumblingly effective bass undertow and is easy to admire. But not necessarily is it so easy to wholescale buy into. I'll be tuning in again nonetheless when the full album is out. There is a spark that may well still ignite. Let's see. Johan Lindvall Trio photo: via Jazzland on Bandcamp

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Thomas Curbillon, Place Ste-Opportune, Jazz & People ****

Charmant, merveilleuse. You can almost taste the Gauloises. Feel the laidback swing in the arranging. Crooning in French, what's not to like from the deftly bruised tones of Thomas Curbillon? Surrounded by a very confident feel that is a huge 1950s …

Published: 12 Oct 2021. Updated: 2 years.

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Charmant, merveilleuse. You can almost taste the Gauloises. Feel the laidback swing in the arranging. Crooning in French, what's not to like from the deftly bruised tones of Thomas Curbillon? Surrounded by a very confident feel that is a huge 1950s throwback and yet hip today somehow Curbillon's bluesy guitar-playing is also excellent and listen, sounding very chilled indeed, is the ludicrously underknown (beyond Belgium and France anyway) Eric Legnini on piano beautifully slotting into the groove.

If not a Bechet fan spend quality time with his monstrously rugged classic vastly communicative take on 'Petite Fleur' first, or for that matter a Monty Sunshine matador of trad holed up in perfidious Albion thinking about being a young buck again raving all night long in the 1950s, you'll be delighted I think by the unexpectedly fulfilling vocal even given how clean Curbillion's treatment of the piece is. You get that devil-may-care spirit throughout Place Ste-Opportune. Francophiles form a long queue, you'll be in your element. More hidebound Rosbifs, fear not. The perky take on Gérard Rinaldi's 'Et bailler et dormir' (sung by Charles Aznavour on a first release in 1954) works and Legnini's line on it is is a delight as is the drum part. SG