Dal Sasso Big Band - John Coltrane's Africa/Brass Revisited (2021) [Hi-Res]

In 1961, John Coltrane made his very first record for the Impulse label and signed, on this occasion, an album unique in his rich discography because it is the only one that the saxophonist has ever recorded with a big band: "Africa/Brass".

At the head of an orchestra largely dominated by brass, drawing its material from blues, folklore, spirituals and the memory of songs associated with slavery, Coltrane performed a series of compositions arranged by Eric Dolphy, which referred back to the original continent - Africa - and, beyond, echoed the African-American experience as a whole. Half a century later, on the strength of the success of his rereading of “A Love Supreme”, master arranger Christophe Dal Sasso and Big Band, elected “Group of the year” at the Victoires du Jazz in 2020, have revisited this underexplored repertoire which they performed for the first time on the stage of the Jazz à La Villette festival in Paris.

Crossing the inspired and fiery saxophones of Sophie Alour, Géraldine Laurent and David El-Malek, this true all-star of hexagonal jazz restores throughout this double live album all the spiritual power of the work, faithful to the universal scope of the humanist message that John Coltrane had written at the heart of his record.

“Tribute concerts are rarely as exceptional as the musician they mean to celebrate. Rarer still are recordings of concerts that live up to the homage, especially when it’s as towering a figure as John Coltrane. John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass Revisited is an exceptional exception to this rule, a refreshing, and updated surprise”, writes Ashley Kahn, author of A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album, from the liner notes of this release.

Arrangements de Christophe Dal Sasso, sur une idée originale de Vincent Bessières.

Julien Alour, Quentin Ghomari, trompette et bugle ;
Jerry Edwards, Daniel Zimmermann, trombone ;
Dominique Mandin, saxophone alto et flûte ; Géraldine Laurent, saxophone alto ; Sophie Alour, saxophone ténor, clarinette et flûte ; David El-Malek, saxophone ténor ; Thomas Savy, clarinette basse, saxophone baryton ;
Pierre de Bethmann, piano ;
Manuel Marches, contrebasse ;
Karl Jannuska, batterie ;
Andy Berlad Catelo, tambour gwo-ka ;
Christophe Dal Sasso, flûte, direction.