INK – African Roots – Couleurs JAZZ

Jazz musicians of all styles and eras have often referred to African music in their work.

They include Art Blakey and his Afro-Drum Ensemble, John Coltrane with the collection ‘Africa Brass’ (1960), Randy Weston (‘Uhuru Africa Freedom Africa’, 1960), Hank Jones (‘Sarala’, 1995) and, of course, Duke Ellington, who composed the ‘Liberian Suite’ in 1947.

Closer to home, Olivier Hutman and Lamine Cissokho or the African Jazz Roots quintet made up of Simon Goubert, Sofia Domancich, Ablaye Cissoko, Ibrahima ‘Ibou’ Ndir and Jean-Philippe Viret, have undertaken a similar approach, at least in principle, continued here with ‘African Roots’, the second album produced by drummer and composer Victor Gachet‘s group INK.

Here we discover how African and jazz traditions feed off each other to form a coherent whole, a happy combination of hard-bop aesthetics and African percussion, magnified in Amazone and African Roots by the brilliant improvisations of Pierre-Alain Goualch and Léonard Kretz, with the meeting of the two worlds blossoming into symbiosis in Tchemogo and Mandara.

The result is an original combination of sounds and a rhythmic ferment that leads the musicians to push back the boundaries between genres, as in International Anthem.

Finally, judiciously interspersed in the repertoire, three Interludes add a welcome touch of variety, giving the two Burkinabè musicians the opportunity to express their unfailing loyalty to their roots.

A fine project.

Line Up:

Léonard Kretz: saxophones tenor & soprano
Pierre-Alain Goualch: piano
Lionel Ehrhart: bass
Victor Gachet: drums
Drissa Dembele: djembé, balafon, kora, vocals
Losso Keïta: percussions, vocals
Pauline Duprat: trumpet