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Reviews

Simon Goubert — Le Phare des Pierres Noires
(Seventh Records A XXV, 1998, CD)

by Mike McLatchey, Published 1999-04-01

Le Phare des Pierres Noires Cover art

I was very impressed by this CD’s first track, “The Wind Will Come.” It tears right out of the speaker like classic Impulse Coltrane, a remarkable seven-minute piece that had me hooked. Yet another of Seventh’s American 60’s-related jazz releases, I was expecting big things from Goubert’s new one. The title track is a 12-minute ballad in which the quintet lays out, perhaps a bit too early in the album. Both saxes get solos here, David Sauzay’s tenor sax and Jean-Michel Couchet’s alto, but when one solos, the other plays E-flat over and over, a distracting feature of a piece that gets quite free before returning to the original theme. I needed some aspirin. Well, “Organum I” will help some, being slow and foreboding, at least no screechy sax. “Cinq Minutes Plus Tard” again brings up the intensity with a brisk face and great sax solos, starting free and coming together into a great jam. “For a New “K"“ is also mellow and abstract, a bit long for its eleven minutes, but a nice impressionistic piece overall. “Campanella” closes the album, and Goubert moves to piano, a beautiful piece with some McCoy Tyner shadings. Summarized, this is a jazz album very much like many an Impulse release in format and styles, but I’d prefer more pieces like “Wind” and “Cinq.” This has high peaks, but little consistency.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 17, 1998 releases

Related artist(s): Simon Goubert

 

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