Souffles

Album review

Percussionist Pierre Favre's Singing Drums is a band that has at its root a charmingly -- and perhaps confoundingly -- simple presumption at its core: that rhythm, well-placed and woven rather than placed on top of or underneath any mix of instruments, will be compulsively attractive for almost any listener. On Souffles, he proves that point over and over again. Singing Drums is a quartet with Favre, fellow percussionist Lucas Niggli, saxophonist Roberto Ottaviano, and tuba player Michael Godard. Here, the tuba acts as an instrument as well, leaving only the saxophones as a front line. But if rhythm is woven into the mix so comprehensively, isn't the saxophone a background instrument? This is almost true, but not exactly. The fifth instrument in Favre's group, and the one that makes all the difference on this album, is counterpoint. From the opening track, "Cabezas y Calabezas," with its haunting and seductive melodic line, to the silly, carnival-charged atmospherics of "Red Socks Dance," to the wonderfully lyrical and elegiac "Michelangelo," both saxophonist and tuba play in counterpoint to one another, leaving Favre and Niggli to build percussive bridges that do not transcend the contrapuntal argument so much as tie them together in a braid so loosely held they fall against one another like drunks in the night and sing. This, dear listeners, is true musical magic.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo