Frédéric Borey - The Option (2013)

"Born in 1967 and based in Bordeaux since 2008, French saxophonist Borey has a CV which includes work with the likes of Didier Lockwood, Michel Benita and and Billy Cobham. He was classically trained from an early age, but the jazz teaching and musical example of Jerry Bergonzi came to mean a great deal to him: certainly, this enjoyable, at times profound recording for the new talent division of Jordi Pujols Fresh Sound label reveals a most accomplished and literate musician, with a good, firm yet diversely expressive sound on all his horns and a compositional talent to match. He is well served by a fine group, with Fridman, BenNaceur and Luccini all offering many tasty moments (I was particularly taken by the cleanly articulated flow of Fridmans lines) and Nisse strong and dependable throughout.

If the lovely, sparely eloquent ballad Olinka shows a mature awareness of how to let a theme unfold in spaciously cast time, elsewhere theres plenty of mellow, reflectively turned swing (Tightrope Walker, Endless Trail) as well as ostinato bass-fed mood (Mr J. H.) and boppish and bubbling, intricately phrased (but never congested) explorations of the contemporary mainstream (sample Lo Zio or the opening Home, where Luccinis brush work shines).

Highlight of the album for me is the deeply measured if at times increasingly urgent meditation that is Earth Complains. Here the regular quintet is joined by Loustalot and Ballue on flugelhorn and trombone respectively, precipitating the sort of swelling ensemble figures and sombre solos which come close to the blues-rinsed gravity and majesty of Coltranes Equinox from the great Coltranes Sound album of 1960."

Michael Tucker -February, 2013