Search - Yves Francois :: Blues for Hawk

Yves Francois is a trumpeter you may not be familiar with but whose strong playing and equally strong instincts instantly grow on you. If Eddie Johnson, still going strong at 84, and Franz Jackson, still wild and woolly at 92, had gotten together for nothing more than the Francois original, "Blues for Hawk," this album would have been worth the price of admission. For all their stylistic differences, they share an ability to go deep into the well of elegiac expression. Basking in Johnson's limpid, broad-shouldered notes and Jackson's guttier answering solos, you feel streams of wordly emotion pour right through you. The album, recorded in the early ?80s, celebrates no one style, but the sort of blurring of styles that was once standard operating procedure among blues and jazz players - particularly in Chicago. With the help of an expansive cast of Chicago players, Francois both recalls some very good old days for jazz while anticipating some very good new ones.