Sean Trane Cassol’s first solo album (not demeaning Defoort’s contribution) is very much an expanded Aka Moon in disguise; since both Hatzi and Galland are all over the album as well. As you’ll have guessed, this album studies Trane’s ALS masterpiece, but don’t expect a straight-out cover or reprise of the original oeuvre. Indeed, as you’ll discover the album, you’ll find that the original pursuance (n pun intended) of Trane’s composition is not really respected, and neither is the chronology. Outside the Aka trio, you’ll find the usual Belgian scene suspects, like Blondiau, Van Herzeele, Kuyken, just to name the better-known ones. Released on the small Bruges label De Werf, the album got support of the whole jazz community in the country, and the results can not disappoint.

Cut down in three parts, the first part breaks down the piece in different four different moods, sometimes almost as a trio, sometimes giving it the big band treatment. The less-initiated (such as me) will sometimes have to play close attention to find the chords and the famous bass riff. As for the second part (in three moods this time) is more reflective, less direct, even going slightly classical at times. The third part (also in three “moods” is a slow big band treatment, almost Gil Evans-like. My main gripe vabout this album is that defoort doesn’t dive in McCoy Tyner’s piano parts. I was expecting a lot of that before hearing the album, and I was somewhat disappointed. In conclusion, if you’re a Trane fan, or just an ALS lover, the present album is pure bliss, because few musicians have dared deconstructing the master’s masterpiece

Sean Trane During Cassol’s residence at Brussel’s Opera de La Monnaie (I think it lasted more or lass a small decade), he kept his Aka Moon relationship alive, not only by managing to have the band play three or fpour concerts in the opera house (it’s a first to my knowledge), but also involving the band in his first two “solo” ventures. Of these two Cassol-directed projects, the first is this VSPSR orchestra collaboration, an amalgam of the three Aka and a bunch of wind-players (anywhere between one and six, depending), a duet of string players and some three opera vocalists adapting (read modernizing) Monteverdi’s Vespro Della Beata Virgine, with the goal of mixing musicians from very different backgrounds: classical, gypsy and our jazz trio. While the Monteverdi work’s modernization passes through some jazzmen (Aka Moon), it’s hard to call/tag this type of work as “Third Stream”, though it wouldn’t be unreasonable either to do so.

Musically, the original work is sometimes totally turned upside down and outside in, as Aka’s rhythm section and the two gypsies are creating a minor revolution that would have most dusty old operaheads screaming for murder. Indeed, while some movements are still quite traditional classical, other pieces are mainly ethnically percussive (Dance Hyo Seung), others are close to a “jazz-rockier” sound, creating a constantly changing soundscape. It might seem a little strange to say that despite this being a Cassol project, on stage/studio/disc, it is more Hatzi and Galland that are more audible, but the trio soars like never before in Laetatus Sum.

Played live on stage, the music was also danced to, and believe me, this was not a tutu ballet thing. If the present project has found (no doubt) grace to your ears, you can indeed follow-up with Cassol’s next project (released two years later), which is a very similar project (this time on a Bach piece), albeit with a totally different cast of musicians, except for the three Aka. Really worth lending an ear to it.

Sean Trane During Cassol’s residence at Brussel’s La Monnaie opera, he kept his Aka Moon relationship alive, not only by managing to have the band play three or fpour concerts in the opera house (it’s a first to my knowledge), but also involving the band in his first two “solo” ventures. This project is based on Bach’s piece of St Matthew’s Passion, but while its modernization passes through some jazzmen (Aka Moon), it’s hard to call/tag this type of work as “Third Stream”, though it wouldn’t be unreasonable either to do so. It’s also not unreasonable to view Pitié as the logical follow-up of his previous work of VSPRS, thaty predates this by two or three years.

With a duet of soprano/mezzo singers up front (sometimes joined by a counter-tenor), the “band” seems to consist at most times of eight musicians, of which two are classical string players and two (sometimes three) are wind-players: Malik’s flute and Cassol’s sax.

Opening on a semi-jazzy Prelude, the project alternates between pure classic/operatic pieces (Heiland, Herzen Schenken) and much more experimental or mixed tracks (Buss Und Rau, Blute Nur; etc…), where the bass and drums are adding a dimension previously unheard of before (at least to me), that it gave me a whole new outlook on the previously-thought dusty and immutable medium. Nowhere is this fascination of mine as strong as on the Gerne Will Ich Mich or the Sturm pieces, where the Aka rhythm section induce an energy previously impossible, and some wide avenues seems suddenly to break open. Having never heard Bach’s original version, I can only wonder if the few mid-eastern intonations in Cassol’s version (namely in Mensch’s vocals) might be a slight provocation or not.

My main gripe with Cassol’s updated Pitié, is that the overall length (80-mins) makes it unbearable and has me worn out by the 2/3-mark, if not sometimes sooner, and going to the end will create an overdose, with a serious risk of allergy… Sometimes, less is more.