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Rating: All right, I may be egocentric because I review records featuring one of the "providers" of my nickname, René Thomas... after all, why else would I have chosen him?!
And then, the album cover may not be much, Eddy Louiss looks like Umberto Smaila during the Gatti di Vicolo Miracoli era (besides, my copy of the CD is different from the one listed on Amazon)... but all this isn't enough to stop me from reviewing this work which dates back to 1968.
Let's get the enthusiastic and cliché phrases out of the way: this album is a Masterpiece, with a capital "M", without mincing words, and you can/must get it with your eyes closed.
The Trio mentioned in the album title consists of Eddy Louiss (organ), René Thomas (guitar), and Kenny Clarke (drums). Eddy Louiss was, and still is, one of the greatest organists ever to take the stage in jazz, not just in Europe, and he shares with Thomas participation in the later "Dynasty" with the superb Stan Getz on sax, a double album that granted them the (too little, oh, so little) notoriety they deserve. Kenny Clarke, on the other hand, is the incredible and legendary drummer who stands among the founders of bebop alongside luminaries like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell... here he is well into his fifties and seems at the peak of his strength and creativity...
This is inspired, serious, and also entertaining jazz, music that flows from the musicians' lives and fills those who listen. Years ago, my guitar teacher, God rest his soul, gave me a tape with all the wrong titles, which contained this work, and I was struck, increasingly with each listen. He had already introduced me to the gritty "Enfin!", again with all the titles wrong or missing, under the name Lou Bennett, where René Thomas had already found his dimension and exceptional personality as a guitarist. I talk a lot about him because he had the curious characteristic of playing better on albums released under other names, in which his presence is such (as a performer of many of the themes of the tracks, as well as a composer) that he must be considered a co-leader by necessity.
So what happens here... well, in just six tracks this explosive trio delights us, fills us with galloping fast tempos ("Nardis", "No Smokin'"), caresses us with a poignant ballad ("You've Changed"), seduces us suavely and elegantly in medium tempos ("Hot House"), always teetering between nostalgia ("Blue Tempo" which in Dynasty will be renamed "Theme for Emmanuel") and carnival-like cheerfulness ("Don't want nothin'"). The interplay is magical, intuitive, without a single crack, Clarke guides the tempo with an undeniable, peremptory presence, always adaptable to the endless rhythmic variations of the soloists, and even the fastest tempos seem slow in a surreal way, so great is the relaxation and the melding of spirits; Louiss finds bass lines like arabesques and lace, with a groove and pulse that is almost physical, leaving one aghast during his exhilarating solos that touch all the strings of the soul; and René, he who for me sits on the highest pedestal a guitarist can be reserved, adds a touch more of melancholy with his lunar sound, with his articulated solos, never clichéd, always lyrical and singable, free and rich with a wisdom I would call "existential". The fit is perfect, the CD restarts from the beginning over and over, never tiring, always with a new fragment to sing, with an unexpected movement to amaze, like children who never tire of hearing the same story to infinity...
Compared to "Enfin!", Thomas here enjoys a cleaner sound, less gritty, rendering the entire spectrum of his expressiveness, in a work of absolute level, where love for music finds a moving and exhilarating tribute. Thank you.
Tracklist
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