Gravitate to the less familiar of the Jobim's World material for most enjoyment and certainly wider elucidation from Yvonnick Prené, above left, and Geoffrey Keezer.
A gentle way to begin the new week. Everything this year in terms of a jazz album featuring harmonica heavily should be thought upon with Grégoire Maret and Romain Collin's Ennio in mind first and Ariel Bart's Deep Down next.
And now no slouches at all, Jobim's World - the clue is in the title - takes a different approach than the Ennio Morricone or Israeli folk influenced themes of our starting points of comparison. Apart from the Brazilian master Jobim (1927-94) at the centre of the album ripples of lateral thinking send us to complementary places musically in the company of these intimate duos. Chromatic harmonica virtuoso Paris born Yvonnick Prené, founder of the New York Harmonica School, is with Wisconsin born 53-year-old pianist Geoff Keezer (Art Blakey, Ray Brown, Art Farmer) whose Playdate we liked a good deal in 2022.
TURNING TO JOBIM HAS LESS OF A HARD BOP SENSE TO IT.
Prené's very different more hard bop rooted Listen! (also on Sunnyside) featuring Jeremy Pelt and Dayna Stephens came out last year.
Produced by Daniel Yvinec
It's all apparently effortlessly conveyed, produced by Daniel Yvinec known for his work directing the Orchestre National De Jazz in France in the late-noughties and early-2010s, and includes some of the tunes you expect to find on a Jobim album from the ubiquitous done-to-death 'A Girl From Ipanema' to 'Desafinado'. Inevitably you will delve deeper and see what the pair do to 'Wave' - a world away just as much from Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 as Karryn Allyson's great recent version - on 'Vagues à Lames' for example - a complete refurbishment. Jobim's World also includes Pixinguinha and Benedito Lacerda's delightful 'Proezos De Solon' from the 1940s that has a masterfully sweeping introduction from Keezer.
Henri Salvador's 'Dans Mon île' that Caetano Veloso covered so meltingly in the 1980s is also here. The album also significantly sports arrangements by pianist Laurent Courthaliac, an intrinsic factor in how and why JW works so satisfyingly.
Tags: Reviews