A studio album recorded in Montreuil last year, Do It! sees the light of day at the end of this month.
A robust kind of record, hard on the outside tender on the inside, tunes include work by Italian pianist Faraò and French trumpeter Belmondo plus his compatriot the bassist Thomas Bramerie chips in with opener ‘Otti’. There’s a sprightly treatment of Herbie Hancock Empyrean Isles classic ‘One Finger Snap’. French drummer Benjamin Henocq completes the line-up – I like his contribution most on Belmondo’s sentimental gem, ‘My Little Dancer.’
It’s masterly stuff and if you are into Freddie Hubbard and albums like Goin’ Up from the 60s you will be in your element. I would have loved the addition of a tenor saxophone to make the sound even meatier but it’s pretty substantial fare as it is regardless.
Faraò has formidable strength and there is a lot of impact to these tunes – it’s not some sort of dreamy piece of fluff to be played in the background. More it’s passionate and fully invested in by all concerned.
Crucially it evokes something more than it is. Isn’t that the purpose of art? You time travel certainly to the 60s; and in your mind’s eye as a listener you are somehow also transported to a top jazz club in New York, London, Paris or Rome.
Belmondo is persuasive and tender. I think I like his part on his own tune ‘Joey’s Smile’ most.
Both this tune and another of his ‘The Melancholy of Rita’ appeared on an album in other treatments that Belmondo recorded with Sylvain Luc on an album called 2.0 issued in 2019 just 5 years before the French guitarist left us far too soon at the age of just 58.
I love it when Faraò breaks loose as he does so joyously when he solos on his own title track of a tune which incidentally is already streaming before the full album’s release.
Hugely enjoyable then. Nothing feels laboured or overthought. Instead there is an intuitive grip on style and substance. The mood is perfectly pitched, the means of expressing it suitably kind of blue.
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