Search - Claude Bolling, Roselli Quartet :: Bolling: Suites for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio

A Trip to the 70s

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 01/24/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Proust had his madeleine dunked in chamomile tea, I have the Jazz Suites of Claude Bolling. I hadn't heard this music in probably twenty-five years, but when I heard the first track here, 'Baroque and Blue,' I was transported back to the 1970s when the world was young. The first jazz suite was on the Billboard best-seller list for, get this, almost ten years. And one heard it everywhere. I was so struck by the combination of jazz and baroque music that I picked out the first couple of pieces on the piano for my own amusement. The original recording featured pianist/composer Bolling and flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, the latter up to then a strictly classical artist. The recording was a great favorite with jazz and classical fans alike. One heard it at parties, on the radio, whistled on the street, in nightspots.



This new recording of the two suites--actually Suite 1 was recorded in 1997 and Suite 2 in 1999--features an all-Sicilian cast of musicians (Giovanni Roselli, flute and Alberto Alibrandi, piano, and friends) was recorded in Catania. It is in sparkling modern sound--the one way it outshines its illustrious predecessor--and is nicely played, although there are some places, especially in fugal or canonic passages, where the articulation of the flutist and the pianist are at odds, one playing staccato, the other semi-legato. The ensemble is tight, the fast passages played with real élan, the slower episodes with feeling.



I'm glad I have this version, because sadly my original Bolling-Rampal version is on LP. I know, though, that the original versions have never been out of print and have long since been transferred to CD; I just don't happen to own them. Also, I think the Bolling/Rampal version requires two CDs. I don't think Roselli and gang have much new to add, but they turn in a creditable set of performances here, and there is the budget price to consider.



TT=57:30



Scott Morrison"