Martial Solal with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen & Daniel Humair – Suite for Trio (1978/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 42:10 minutes | 798 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS
On this MPS release Solal teams up with jazz giants German bassist Niels-Henning Pederson and Swiss drummer Daniel Humair in what music journalist Karl Lippegaus described as “a European dream trio”. Solal originals grace the first three album tracks. Coming Yesterday features Solal and Pederson playing the difficult melody line in unison, followed by an inventive piano solo and Pederson’s exploratory play punctuated by Solal’s pointillistic chordal jabs. No Delay swings from postimpressionist modernism on through to a Latin feel and into a bluesy bass solo in a rollercoaster ride of musical emotions. Suite For Two again displays Solal’s creative genius as it pushes musical boundaries in what could be described as ‘Solal jazz’. Solal’s abstract introduction to ‘S Wonderful settles down to a swinging version of the Gershwin classic, replete with humorous pianistic asides and some tasty brush work by Humair. Cherokee, the piece that Charlie Parker used to redefine jazz improvisation, starts off with Pederson playing over the changes before Solal dismembers then reconstructs the piece. After each trio member has a short solo say on Here’s That Rainy Day, the band takes on the standard at an up-tempo pace. Humair segues the trio into a dark rock beat as they walk away into the mist. A superb trio with surprises around every bend of the musical road.
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Eddie Louiss, John Surman, Daniel Humair – Our Kind of Sabi (1970/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 39:17 minutes | 738 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS
The brilliant French Hammond organist and pianist Eddy Louiss worked with the likes of Kenny Clarke, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Stan Getz; reed player John Surman and drummer Daniel Humair have long been major forces on the European scene. Louiss also recorded the title piece on Stan Getz’s “Dynasty” album – here the trio presents a wilder version with fiery solos from Surman’s baritone and Louiss on Hammond. This trio likes their Sabi hot with a Spanish tinge. On the Martinique folk song Zafe Ko Ida, the great Norwegian bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson joins Louiss on Marimba and Humair on drums, keeping with the tradition of the Caribbean before Eddy switches to piano and the three transform the sound of the islands into swinging jazz. Song For Martine brings Surman back on soprano and Louiss once again sitting behind the Hammond with a plaintive balladic feel before moving into an Afro-Latin groove that underpins passionate solos. On Humair’s Out Of The Sorcellery Louiss pedals the Latinesque two-beat bass line on Hammond as he and Humair conjure their magical interplay. A classy trio album with Louiss’ superb Hammond organ play front and center and a glimmering of the Caribbean dancing in the shadows.
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Daniel Humair, Stéphane Kerecki, Vincent Lê Quang – Modern Art (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:24 minutes | 844 MB | Genre: Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © INCISES
This Modern Art recording project is an invitation to discover new ideas, and these pieces of music by Vincent Lê Quang, Stéphane Kerecki and myself are not really tributes; I prefer to think of them in terms of correspondences, parallel ideas, encounters, affinities, out-of-the-ordinary phenomena. We’ve chosen several 20th century painters to give us one of two possibilities : either we already had such and such a composition in our pack that matched up with the pictorial world of a certain artist, or we’ve written an original composition inspired by an artist’s work.
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Daniel Humair – Sweet and Sour (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 54:02 minutes | 603 MB | Genre: Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Laborie Jazz
Daniel Humair. Legendary name in the history of jazz and yet so present. A book 74 years we certainly one of its most beautiful summits, meetings of which he has the secret and command respect, passion, power and love for music. Time has taken its full potential in this new Quartet, one of the meeting, sharing, listening to one another and especially the unparalleled pleasure to convey a simple joy but so obvious.
Even if you didn’t know that Humair is one of France’s top percussionists, you might guess that this was a Gallic offering by the presence of an accordion in his quartet, in place of the customary piano. Not that this is by any means an easy-listening cafe experience. In fact, some if it is so abstract that it’s quite hard going, but the way these players develop whole musical narratives out of the simplest initial ideas can be mesmerising, if you give it a chance. The veteran Humair has certainly found kindred spirits in musicians half his age, especially the remarkable accordionist, Vincent Peirani.
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Daniel Humair – 1291 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 48:42 minutes | 473 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Outnote Records
Three generations of top Swiss jazz musicians from three different parts of the country, Daniel Humair, Samuel Blaser and Heiri Känzig, form a new trio that promises to stimulate the interest of both music lovers and curious listeners. The title of the album, 1291, is a nod to the Federal Charter, one of the earliest Swiss constitutional documents that eventually became the founding text of Switzerland.
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