An album with a good deal of John Abercrombie and Lookout Farm-like charm that gently unfurls and detours into more rustic environs at its tail end. Born in Perugia in 1984 Paris studied physics at university first. Later he switched to music in Siena. The guitarist here, the very impressive Ruggero Fornari, also is a Siena jazz graduate.
In 2021, Paris’ debut album as a bandleader was the far more hard bop inclined Underneath. Trinta followed in December 2023.
The early Folk Traffic tracks work best. Tunes are the leader’s plus a version of ‘The Death of Queen Jane,’ a ballad that references the death of Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour in 1537.
Trad Irish icons the Bothy Band did an exquisite version of the song on 1979’s After Hours. And a relatively recent version includes one by singer Loreena McKennitt on 2010’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley. The melody of the Folk Traffic treatment is taken on by Lieb-like sax instead of voice. Available from Italian label Encore Music.
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