Jazz | Marlbank | Naïssam Jalal, Souffles Review

Album guests are alto saxist Thomas de Pourquery, clarinettist Yom, tenor saxist
Sylvain Rifflet, bass clarinettist Louis Sclavis, soprano saxophonist Irving Acao, trombonist Robinson Khoury, soprano saxist Emile Parisien and tenor saxist, vocalist Archie Shepp.

There’s a sense of something greater than the sum of these distinctive parts.

All the pieces on this latest from French flautist, vocalist, ney player, composer Naïssam Jalal certainly possess an ineffable mindful quality.

Floaty, delivered at fairly sedate tempi but as often as not generating involving bursts of energy it’s an album of breath-themed duets featuring notably Archie Shepp, Louis Sclavis and Émile Parisien among the star names.

Ostensibly spiritual jazz in some ways Souffles is more genreless than some releases in the style that are powered by more ruggedly amplified solutions or other heightened kinds of vamps.

Three tracks are streaming – the full release is on 30 May

Jalal with bass clarinettist Louis Sclavis – photo: via Jalal’s Facebook

Jalal of Syrian descent was born in Paris in 1984, studying in the French capital, Damascus and in Cairo. She is a veteran exponent of what some might intrepidly call, given a desire beyond the meaninglessness of the verbiage, to explain just how different this and previous work is to mainstream jazz styles, world or global sounds. Because the hybrid jazzified Arabic style she follows is at a remove from more often heard strictly swinging and US bebop rooted jazz currents but sits well for instance with what both Anouar Brahem and Yazz Ahmed in their different ways have achieved this year.

Jalal appeared on the cover of French magazine *Jazz News* recently with Archie Shepp

Trance-like and meditative are some of the common and reasonably fair reactions to what Jalal’s approach creates. And through a considerable track record to date she builds on that eclectic approach on this largely absorbing offering.

There’s a firm playing personality that isn’t distracted by the guests at all. And the way the album has been strung together sequentially is seamless and works well for continuous play.

The Sclavis and Shepp features stand out. But you almost crave for additional spoken word commentary or some sort of visual montage to accompany these sounds. And it’s concert hall music rather than club sounds at heart given its broad chamber music sensibility and carefully measured gracefulness.