Search - Jean-Pierre Mas :: (H) Ombre

Spectacular, iconoclastic, idiosyncratic . . .

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 07/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

". . . what more could you want?How about ravishingly beautiful? Rhythmically sophisticated? Impossibly hip (though in some kind of anti-hip sense; after all, this dude's a forty-something Canuck: not exactly the recognized profile of hipness)?Sometimes great music just seems to materialize out of nowhere; that's the case here. Tell me, have you ever heard of leader Jean-Pierre Mas (piano)? Or Idriss Boudrioua (ts & ss)? Or Juan-Jose Mosalini (bandoneon)? or Xavier Desandre (percussion)? Andre Ceccarelli (drums) and Sylvin Marc (electric bass) sound vaguely familiar, but I couldn't name any discs they've played on off the top of my head. There are, admittedly, very effective guest appearances by Toots Thielmans (harmonica) and Dedier Lockwood (violin), but the heart of this band is, I venture to say without contradiction, unknown.What we've got here is Nu-tango/cabaret jazz of the absolute highest order. When this music works (and it doesn't, automatically; you've got to, almost, CAJOLE it), it works in spades. As it does here. Mystery, sensuality, beauty, severity all combine to mesmerize. Surely, this is music that springs from some deep cultural soil: Andalusia via Paris filtered through Quebec, I'm thinking (and that would be sufficiently rich--if it could all be sorted out, as it is here--to produce music of the highest order).In short: Are you tired of the same old same old, but leery of putting out bucks for some will o' the wisp? Not to worry. Trust Uncle Jan: This is the real deal.Surely one of my top five discoveries."