Another lovely BYG Actuel title.
I just posted the epic ”Black Suite” album by Jacques Coursil which blew me away, but this one blew me away as well to a similar extent. This is a trio album, with Arthur Jones on alto sax, the brilliant French double bassist Beb Guérin, with his deep and organic tone, and compatriot drummer Claude Delcloo. All three playing on the Coursil joint as well.
It starts off with a free, burning statement for about 4 minutes, and then it slides over to a lovely 5 minute bass solo with some drum accents, and then it picks up again a bit towards the end. Probably would scare off many a non-free lover. But what comes after this first tune is a calmer spiritual energy, including many melodic passages, and then some free stuff during a 2 minute passage on the last tune of the second side.
Side two begins with a beautiful piece called ”Sad Eyes”. This is jazz artistry at the highest level. Simply amazing stuff. I would suggest you listen to this one first to experience one of the real highlights of this album. I bet you would really dig it. It’s very melodic and very spiritual.
Jones incorporates some melody into his free statements. That’s what stands out for me. As well as playing more spiritual of course, with even more focus on melody. His sound on his alto sax is immense. A great big and clear sound. Never heard anything quite like it. From this moment, a clear favorite on the alto.
The free statements are superb. But it’s the calmer moments which really makes you wonder why he didn’t record more as a leader. He plays absolutely beautiful. This cat was criminallly underrated it seems. A great composer as well, as he wrote all the tunes on this album. Need to check out everything he did and the other cats’ stuff as well. They played on some other BYG sessions for example.
Listen to ”Sad Eyes” and tell me this cat didn’t deserve more recognition. Brilliant stuff.