Martial Solal Newdecaband - Exposition Sans Tableau (2006)

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Algiers-born French pianist Solal, who has been around long enough to have played with guitar legend Django Reinhardt, is one of the undisputed giants of European jazz; his name commanded widespread respect even back in the 1950s, when "giants" and "European jazz" weren't often heard in the same sentence. The Newdecaband is an Ellington-inspired little-big band Solal has written for previously, and the group plays an all-Solal repertoire of six pieces here. Some of it sounds a little like Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool; some is contemporary-classical (such as the pure and stately vocal by Claudia Solal on A Frail Dance); some explores spiky call-and-response, like the alternating bursts of onrushing orchestral patterns and piano remonstrances on Western. Denis Leloup's velvety trombone inventiveness is masterly on A Frail Dance, and the title track is a racing, staccato-melody piece with tersely swapped phrases. The album may be a bit restlessly busy and stop-go for some jazzers, but it's crafted down to every fraction of a note. The Guardian, John Fordham

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Track List:

1. Incoercible 7:21
2. Western 7:12
3. A Frail Dance 9:59
4. Cortancyl 6:05
5. Exposition Sans Tableau 6:36
6. Lamblike 6:24