Transversales Disques France Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Keys maestro Ahmad Jamal was something of a lost bebopper, giving penance to a genre that was otherwise mired in noodling and relentless velocity. Placing artistic integrity over the spotlight was a trait he maintained over the course of an entire career, earning him a reputation as something of a jazz angel. This repress of an early live show in Paris - backed by Frank Gant on drums and Jamil Nasser on double bass - effortlessly brings a trans-Atlantic mood across the pond from New York to France, with Jamal sternly prodding both the white-and-black ivories, and our moods.

Review: Here's something to set the pulse racing of any serious jazz enthusiast: a recently rediscovered recording of a live performance made by the Pharoah Sanders Quartet at the Grand Auditorium at Studio 104, Paris, in 1975. The tenor saxophonist is undoubtedly the star of the show throughout, though the fluidity of the double bass playing, the loose-limbed drumming and the rush-inducing breeziness of the piano parts - especially on "Love Is Here" parts one and two, which reminded us of another Sanders classic "You've Got To Have Freedom" - are all equally as ear-catching. Musically, it's as inspired as you'd expect, nestling somewhere between the great maestro's greatest "astral jazz" recordings and more traditional forms of jazz.