Charles Loos Trio - Secret Laughs (New Edition) (2012)

Together with Felix Simtaine, I was one of those kids fed with the chords of “ln The Mood”. Too young for the exuberant years between 1945 and 1955 and already too old for what happened in May 1968. Nevertheless we were among the few ‘teenagers’ attending the first festival of Comblain la Tour on August 2d 1959. At that time we met Bobby Jaspar, René Thomas, Jack Sels, Maurice Simon and other friends of musician pharmacist Jacques Pelzer.

We loved jazz during the most critical years: the post-Parker and pre-Coltrane period. Back in 1960 we were desparately looking in tiny little Belgium for people who would carry on the incomparable jazz tradition established by elder compatriots such as Robert Goffin (first critic in the history of jazz), Bobby Jaspar (first white musician to play with Miles Davis) and so many more. Luckily brilliant youngsters like Felix Simtaine, Bruno Castellucci and Philip Catherine, emerged from the dark every now and then. In 1960 Charles Loos was nine years old. A good twenty years later l’m proud to write that he is not the only Belgian musician to be ranked among the best, but Charles is one of the greatest, one of the most talented and above all one of the most sensitive musicians around. His musical approach reminds me sometimes of Thelonious Monk but mostly of Bud Powell and the “blue notes“· (Heaven knows how much I love Bud Powell !). To exemplify this listen to “Solar“: Charles Loos, the composer and arranger is also an “harmonious harmonizing“ piano player. This record unveils his romanticism and freshness: this could be the soul of a young boy who just received the Holy Communion. Rather than use this naive image l’d better describe the climate: this is an honest album for not too honest a midsummer night! Listen to “Valse De La Mort“ ! It starts quietly, peacefully and all of a sudden there we go into a climax, advanced coma, the last seconds of the countdown, the big escalator to heaven where archangel Riccardo welcomes you… then follows the big slide into hell where Lucifer Simtaine roars… repentant Charles thinks salvation is near. l’ll be damned, but this is it ! To find Felix Simtaine on the drummer’s stool for this album might astonish those who think that he is merely a good swing machine. I always claimed that Felix is the most “black sounding“ drummer in Belgium. Besides being excellent in launching the soloists, he’s got a lot of “sexuality“ in his playing as well. Charles, who thinks the same way, gave him the opportunity to display all of his qualities. He’s the perfect link between piano and bass. Riccardo Del Fra plays with Charles Loos for almost a year new. This perfect ltalian bass player, living in Paris has quite a few credencials. He accompagnied such jazz greats as Chet Baker, Didier Lockwood, Kenny Wheeler and Paul Motian. A highly melodic and sensitive musician, he is constantly on the same wave-length with Chartes and is always ready to assume his part of the dialogue with his fellow musicians. There isn’t enough space for me to tell you how good this album is and how often the music evokes the fantastic tales written by Michel De Ghelderode. Listen to “Secret Laugh“, a dialogue between three ‘“braggy“ companions who have difficulty hiding their exuberant youth behind swaggering smiles. Listen to the tightly knit sounds of “Theme For Leo“, dedicated to Leo Souris and the expressive vigour of “Growlin’Face“. And now, please don’t tell me that you can’t get out of your slippers to go and listen to the Charles Loos trio! Thanks Charles!

Jean-Marie Hacquier