5.0 out of 5 stars
Moncef Genoud "Moncef's Mood", April 2, 2006
This review is from: Moncef's Mood (Audio CD)
"Moncef's Mood" is Moncef Genoud's 1st full live album and his second for Japanese label Polystar Jazz Library. Recorded at the Schaffhausen Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 2004 with his Swiss trio composed of Thierry Hochstätter on drums and Frédéric Folmer on the upright electric bass, it features six of Moncef's recent compositions.
The trio opens with the title track, and this version of "Moncef's Mood" is a long declension of this melancholic theme, allowing the three friends to wander into various stylistic directions along the way. The second track is called "This Is For Fred", an alternate name from "Times Square Circle", which is featured on the album "Aqua". Moncef lets loose amidst the intricate chord changes, while the rhythm section accommodates its leader's extravagance, Thierry and Fred displaying their own prowess in their respective solos. On "Louloutte", also known as "Sliding Shadows" to the listeners of "Aqua", the track's intensity gradually builds up to its paroxysm, comes back down for a theme or two, before ending in stomping fashion. Moncef's composition "It's You", originally from the album of the same name, begins in a whole new way, Thierry's steel drums and percussion sounds blending with Moncef pentatonic scales to create an oriental-like atmosphere. Later, the trio, led by Moncef's fierce outburst that would make a John Coltrane proud, explodes into a rumble over the three-note bass line before returning to an apparent tranquility. Next up is the familiar "Foncef", another energetic number, followed by "Aqua" and its beautiful theme. Even without Michael Brecker's powerful tenor sax, the trio manages to fully extract and render the emotion and energy of the tune. The set concludes with the soft and delightful "Lovely Vij". The three friends prove to be equally apt to convey the sentimental mood of this ballad as they were showcasing the intense bolts of the preceding tunes, thus expressing the calm not before but after the storm.
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