5.0 out of 5 stars
Great, Live "Best of . . . ", so to speak, November 9, 2009
Another very good recording by the French fusion Zeuhl band, still going strong after over 30 years. I didn't go and cross reference all the titles to their albums, but it seems to be a mix of old and new tunes (mostly older ones), with 4 veteran/original members and 2 recently added musicians. It is a good, long CD at 73:16. The recording is excellent. It features Zao founders Jeff "Yochk'o" Seffer (sop. sax), and Francois "Faton" Cohen (keys), early members Gerard Prevost (bass) and Francois Causse (drums), and new additions Cynthia Saint-Ville (singing) and Akihisa Tsuboy (violin). Cahen and Seffer were original members (and writers) of Magma, the source of Zeuhl music. After 3 years, they left to form Zao in 1971, mostly because they wanted to do more improvising than Christian Vander would allow in Magma. Zao has a much jazzier feel than Magma. Where Magma is almost a genre unto itself, Zao is definitely jazz fusion. They use odd time signatures, Middle Eastern and Eastern European melodies, (Seffer is Hungarian) and play snaky, sinuous, infectious and catchy riff-based fusion. Heavy on the fender rhodes, and now with a vocalist (usually wordless) and violinist, all the musicians are top notch. They rock! And this music is not all that easy to play. It is a lot of fun. Some of these tunes are from their first albums and they are still fresh. I've been a fan of Zao since 1974. If you are new to Zao, Zheul, or French fusion and want to find out what all the fuss was about, this would be a very good, if not the best place to start. [versoix]
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