A Thing Called Joe

Album review

A wonder! This third album from Guilhem Flouzat is an absolute wonder. Nothing obsolete in there, just the truth. Like the unshakeable truth of the Great American Songbook and the thousands of standards that the French drummer is revisiting here. Flouzat here has opted to deal with a few less-publicised numbers like There’s No You by Hal Hopper and Tom Adair, Oska T by Monk, Mrs. Parker of KC by Jaki Byard, When I Fall In Love by Victor Young and Edward Heyman and Walking My Baby Back Home by Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert. A Thing Called Joe is also an offering on the altar of New York jazz and its commonplaces and clichés, which he avoids masterfully. The drummer has clearly learned from his seven years in the Big Apple: he has taken home a wonderful swing and a refined ability to manipulate space and silence. At his sides, the great New Orleans pianist Sullivan Fortner and the Australian double-bass player Desmond White are a lot more than just bodyguards: they are craftsmen assisting him in the restoration of these historic friezes, both respectful of a certain tradition, and truly modern. Real class. © MD/Qobuz