Keep (it) Swinging: Michel Mainil - Reflections in Blue: Live concert at the Brussels Music Village

Michel Mainil - Reflections in Blue: live-optreden in de Music Village (Nederlands) Michel Mainil - Reflections in Blue: Live concert at the Brussels Music Village ( English)

A great live registration based on the hard bop tradition!
MICHEL MAINIL - REFLECTIONS IN BLUE: Live concert at the Brussels MUSIC VILLAGE
Hans Koert

Michel Mainil released a new album entitled Reflections in Blue, named after a James Williams composition. The Michel Mainil Quartet - Reflections in Blue album, was recorded live at the Music Village, a well known jazz club at the Steenstraat near the Grote Markt of Brussels. Michel Mainil performed with his quartet, featuring himself at the tenor and soprano saxophone, Alain Rochette at the piano, José Bedeur at the double bass and Antoine Cirri drums. The concerts took place in the first week of August, 2009.

Michel Mainil is born in La Louviere and studied at the Conservatory of La Louviere. As a student he discovered the music of Duke Ellington and became fascinated by the great reeds players John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz. From the former he loved to listen to records like Blue Train and Afro Blue Impression. He played in all kinds of (jazz) bands, from traditional jazz to world music, before he left Europe for a few years to live in Cameroon, where he played with local groups. When he returned to Belgium he founded his band Nemesis with Pascale Loriers, Piet Verbiest and Guy Vaerendonck. He also directed the Michel Mainil Quintet with Paolo Loveri, Alex Furnelle, Alain Rochette, José Bedeur and Richard Rousselet. He played in a group, dedicated to the music of Monk, entitled A Monk's Flavour. During the last decade Michel is active in numerous groups and projects, too much to make a complete list, and this qua

rtet is one of it.
The Michel Mainil Quartet released an album entitled Water and Other Games, recorded in La Louviere in November 2003 for Aram and this one, Reflections in Blue seems to be a logical follow up.
The album contains seven tracks, originally composed by some well known composers like Cole Porter ( Get Out Of Town), George Gershwin ( with one of the highlights from the Porgy en Bess suite, I loves You Porgy) and the Wayne Shorter tune, Footprints, which Shorter recorded in February 1966 for the first time with his Quartet for the Blue Note album Adam's Apple and which would become one of Shorter's best known compositions. Footprints is one of the lengthy tracks released on the Michel Mainil album, as most have a 10 minutes playing times - one of the joys of a live concert registration.

The seldom heard tune Mishima, a David Schnitter composition, was, like the title track Reflections in Blue, only recorded in December 1978 by Art Blakey and his Jazzmessengers, in the period that David Schnitter played the tenor saxophone in that band.

Michel Mainir ( photo courtesy: J-P. Stercq)

A remarkable choice is the tune Beija Flor, which opens with a piano intro by Alain Rochette and a great bowed solo by José Bedeur. It's a Brazilian song ( Beija Flor is a kind of hummingbird ) originally composed by Nelson Antonio da Silva, a guitarist better known as Nelson Cavaquinho. Nelson started his career at the cavaquinho, playing Choro music, before he specialized in samba's. This tune has been recorded by the Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combination & Brass May 1994 and recently by the Marco Cesar Sexteto Capibaribe and the quartet of the popular 12-strings cavaquinho player Hamilton De Holanda. Another stranger in the midst is the jazz traditional Just A Closer Walk With Thee with a less successful vocalized bass solo by José Bedeur.

The Michel Mainil Quartet features skilled jazz musicians like José Bedeur, active on both double bass as chello, who played with great names like Coleman Hawkins, Claude Bolling, Martial Solal, Johnny Griffin and Tete Montoliu; Alain Rochette, piano player and Michel Mainil know each other well and play for years together. Antoine Cirri, drummer, is also part of the Alain Cupper Quartet, the group of the Belgian baritone saxophone player and the group Jojoba, with Jean-Luc Pappi at the piano.

If you like jazz with its roots in the 1950s jazz tradition, like the hard bop, this album should be in your collection. You can order the album Reflections in Blue on this site.

Hans Koert

keepswinging@live.nl

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The Michel Mainil Quartet recorded live at the Brussels Music Village jazz Club and the concert was released on an album entitled Reflections in Blue. Four skilled Belgian jazz musicians honour the jazz from the 1950s and 1960s with some rare heard tunes. Keep Swinging reviewed it - don't miss it. If you love to read it all, follow it at Twitter or ask for its free newsletter.