Empirical - Jazz sous les Pommiers 2010 [2010, Post-Bop / Neo-Bop, SATRip]

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  Play Length: 01:00:11
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Empirical est un des groupes les plus «exciting» de ces dernières années. En deux ans et autant d'albums, le quartet londonien impose sa vision décapante du jazz moderne. Leur musique, entre post-bop et avant-garde à la Eric Dolphy, est fourmillante d'idées novatrices. Privilégiant la spontanéité et l'improvisation, ce jazz-là est réjouissant et nous rappelle qu'il est une musique toujours jeune et plus vivante que jamais.

2009 DAVE HOLLAND QUINTET
2009 BRANFORD MARSALIS
2010 ANDRÉ CECCARELLI "Le cog et la pendule" Hommage à Nougaro
2010 DENIS COLIN & LA SOCIÉTÉ DES ARPENTEURS
2010 JOHN McLAUGHLIN & THE 4th DIMENSION
2010 RENAUD GARCIA-FONS "La Linea del Sur"
2010 PAOLO FRESU & URI CAINE
2010 SURNATURAL ORCHESTRA
2010 DHAFER YOUSSEF
2010 EMPIRICAL
2011 A FILETTA, PAOLO FRESU, DANIELE DI BONAVENTURA "Mistico Mediterraneo"
2011 FRED WESLEY & THE NEW JB's
2011 TIGRAN HAMASYAN

EMPIRICAL "Out 'n' In" © 2009, Naim Jazz
In jazz parlance, an "out" tune is one that is particularly challenging to the ear – it may have an especially counterintuitive chord progression or spiky melody; it may be partly or largely improvised; or it may be so rhythmically intricate that it's hard to follow. There have been many jazz musicians, particularly since the fading of the original bebop era in the 1950s, who have explored the "outer" territories of the genre, but few have retained as much respect among musicians as the great saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy. On their second album, the quartet Empirical pay homage to Dolphy with two rearrangements of his compositions ("Hat & Beard" and "Gazzelloni"), and nine originals that draw deeply on his influence. It's a great tribute to this group's originality and virtuosity that they are able to write in a Dolphy-influenced style without sounding either like slavish imitators or parodists: their take on Dolphy's sprawling "Hat & Beard" is both sharp and swinging, with the walking bassline played by guest musician Julian Siegel on bass clarinet; the album's title track is especially impressive, with vibraphone that creeps snakily up and down its register (and back and forth between the left and right stereo channels) while the drums remain so quiet that they occasionally become nearly subliminal. "Dolphyus Morphyus" is both astringently "out" and carefully, almost elegantly written. Some of the more improvised material is less compelling: "Syndicalism" might better have been titled "Anarcho-Syndicalism," but it isn't bad; the brief, improvised interlude titled "A Conversation" could have been left off the program without doing it any harm. Overall, though, this is a bracingly fine example of nicely backward-looking, thoroughly modern jazz.
Rick Anderson (AMG)