Jean Toussaint
Live In Paris & London - Space Time Records BG2928
A live album can be special, even if it’s not quite the complete concert you expect. This one takes four numbers cut in late 2004 at the Sunside club in Paris and artfully stirs in three 2009 tracks from London’s 606 Club. It was in ’87, after four years with Art Blakey, that an assignment at the Guildhall School brought Toussaint to the UK, and he never went back. His quartet here includes the distinctive British pianist Andrew McCormack, while guitarist Jerome Barde contributes nice solos to two of the Paris tracks. Back in London, Benet McClean takes over the piano to set off a whole box of Monkish fireworks on the closing track, ‘Round Midnight’.
Sound Quality: 85%