Bireli Lagrene - Inferno (1987)

Walter Kolosky @ Jazz.com/music:
Much has been expected of Bireli Lagrene. He was playing Django Reinhardt's repertoire at age 8. By the time he was 12, he was touring Europe and being hailed as the next Django. He decided to take that Gypsy style in a jazz and jazz fusion direction. Over the years, he has played with many great musicians. On Inferno, he finds himself with stars of the second wave of fusion that hit the beaches in the 1980s.

"Inferno," recorded when Bireli was 21, is a Gypsy-boogie fusion number, if I may be so descriptive. Victor Bailey's repeating bassline is so perfect it almost sounds looped. There is just enough variation in it to prove otherwise. Over Bailey's never-ending groove and occasional lush chords from Carter, Lagrene's solo comes at you in bursts, full of chorused blues and rapid jagged scalar runs. Moerlen and Café throw in the kitchen sink for contrast, though nothing too heavy. The liner notes indicate that Bill Evans (sax) donates some dulcet tones, but I cannot hear him.

"Inferno" isn't quite an inferno, and the theme could have been developed a bit more. But for what it is – a showcase for some '80s fusion chops – it stands up well 20 years later. On the whole, Lagrene has lived up to expectations. In this fickle world, that is not such an easy thing.

Katzman on Allaboutjazz.com Talk Jazz forum:
Whether you know him from when he played with Patorious or from his Django stuff, this guy is amazing. I may be being contraversal but whilst everyone seems to always talk about Matheny and Scofeild as 'the' guitarists around today I find Bireli Lagrene the unaknowlaged king of jazz guitar. Although I appreciate Mathenys technical brilliance he leaves me cold, even Mclaughlen in a purely jazz setting I find boring (non-pure jazz Bitches Brew and Shakti where brilliant), whereas Scofeild is just dull. Ofcorse this just my opinion and subjective taste, I have just been longing for a guitarist who scraps the chorus effect, no mid tone, psudo- modern/hip sound for a pure tonality and plays melodicly rather than self-consiously modal and are paranoid that their not avant-guard enough. In Bireli Lagrene I have found a guitarist who, to my ears, has a great tone, acoustic and electric (the later post 1992), is phenomenaly melodic with an endless stream of fertile ideas and to top it all uses his boundless facility for technical wonders purely in the intrest of musicality. When this guy plays fast it still sounds so beautiful.

Personnel:
Bireli Lagrene, guitar
Victor Bailey, bass (electric)
Bill Evans, tenor sax
Café, percussion
Cliff Carter, keyboards
Danny Gottlieb, drums
Dave Weckl, drums
Pierre Moerlen, drums
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, drums

Tracks:
1. Inferno (6:04)
2. Rue de Pierre, Pt. 2 (3:55)
3. Action (4:00)
4. Rock It (5:07)
5. Incertitude (6:38)
6. Berga (4:07)
7. Ballade (6:11)
8. Hips (3:10)

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