Wednesday evening and I am back at MICAS for the next installment of the Malta Jazz Festival. The band is Gulhem Flouzat and the “I’m Nice Project’. Guilhem is a drummer, composer and lyrist whose album I’m Nice is the third of a trilogy. For this evening’s performance he was joined by vocalist Isabel Sörling, Michaël Valeanu on guitar, Laurent Coq at the piano and bassist Matteo Bortone.
From the outset it was clear that this was going to be a different style of jazz from the previous two evenings. This is a sophisticated, contemporary jazz sound that is not easy to categorize. Whilst it could be said that Flouzat leads this band from the back, it is the enigmatic vocalist Isabel Sörling whose intence, emotive vocals keep your eyes and ears transfixed. However, Flouzat does have a very witty repartee when introducing the songs and the influences behind them – many of which focus on getting older but not necessarily wiser.
We were treated to nine tracks in total but two really stood out for me: I’m Nice and I Can Parent. The first has, vocally, an evasive dry wit about it. In many ways it is understated but therein lies its effectiveness as a number. This tune sits in the jazz singer-songwriter style with its reflective, intimate vocals backed by exquisite guitar work from Michaël Valeanu. I Can Parent is a more punchy, vibrant funk driven number. The vocals were as much spoken as sung, the bass lines throbbed, the piano of Laurent Coq punched through to add yet another layer of sound to this unconventional jazz song form.
The event at MICAS closed out with Sapphire Snakes, a song about anger and hate, according to Guilhem Flouzat. This tense, dark and brooding. Jazz-funk moved through to jazz-fusion in a wonderful piece of theatrical jazz and that amazing voice of Isabel Sörling. That ended the performance but Guilhem Flouzat, Matteo Bortone and Michael Valeanu had not finished yet.
Late Night Sessions took place at Offbeat Music Bar in Merchant Stree, Valletta. The “House Band” was led by the festival’s artistic director, Sandro Zerafa on guitar, with Yoni Zelnik on bass (so good to hear him play live again), Noé Huchard Huchard at the piano and a terrific drummer in Francesco Ciniglio. After a set by the “house band”, many of the tunes played written by Sandro, the jamming started with saxophonist Carlo Muscat joining in and sounding so good. The aforementiond band mebers from earlier in the evening took their turn amongst a number of local and visiting musicians who all added to the fantastic atmosphere that was created.
I met so many interesting people at the late session: musicians who would be performing later in the festival; the writer of the Keeping Time documentary, Ġużè Camilleri, that is shown across the week; and of course Carlo Muscat whose latest album Thats About It I reviewed recently for this blog. This was an exciting end to an amazing evening of live jazz music, so glad to be back in Malta for this very well organized, and very satisfying cultural event!
SimplyJazzTalk 