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Claude Bolling & Jean-Pierre Rampal
Suite for Flute & Jazz piano trio No.1 [1975]
Jazz/Instrumental | APE | 192 Mb
Beautiful album for Audiophiles
Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio on CBS Records (MK 33233) was on the Billboard list of classical best-sellers for over 530 weeks, a rare occurrence in the history of the charts.
This first suite and the second one by same artist pair never get old, and are like old friends every time you hear them, as they never fail to deliver. You'll find yourself repeatly play them all the time.
French composer and pianist Claude Bolling earned considerable acclaim for his 1970s series of semi-classical jazz suites of which the two flute pieces included here are probably the best known. Originally written for the flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, they are performed admirably here by the Roselli Quartet, with Giovanni Roselli handling the flute duties. Bouncy and light, meditatively bright and interesting, but a bit too loose for classical, and yet not quite jazz, Bolling's suites occupy an intriguing middle ground, suggesting possibilities perhaps more than anything else.
Jean-Pierre Rampal may never get down and dirty on this album, considered "his first jazz recording," but the music is nonetheless infectious, breezy, playful, and crystal clear. The legendary flutist is so technically accomplished that anything too "swinging" from him seems a bit stiff, but this is where drummer Marcel Sabiani, bassist Mel Young, and legendary jazz pianist (and friend of Duke Ellington) Claude Bolling take over, all making these compositions seem jazzier than they are on paper.
As an example, both "Baroque and Blue" and "Sentimentale" flirt with the morning air, with themes that somewhat separate Rampal's fluttering passages from all the hipster riffs. Track for track, note for note, there is nothing substandard about these "clazzical" hybrids. "Fugace" is a great countermelody express elevator, delightful in its energy and polish. "Javanaise" takes it slow enough for Charlie Brown to waltz about on the ice-skating rink. "Versatile" is a bouncy little trapeze act on the bass flute, and "Véloce" is a fantastic race to the wedding altar, a fantastic balance of tension and release, a nail-biter, a Buster Keaton melodrama, a cream pie in the face, and a precise exclamation mark to close the album. Here and there, Bolling and company manage to get Rampal to loosen his tie. Slightly. It's not quite jazz, but it's still spellbinding music.
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