Some weekend listening:
Sophia Domancich - Pentacle
A beautiful album. I've given it the critical three spins, and I still love it as much as when I first heard it. The band features Jean-Luc Capozzo on trumpet (also with Louis Sclavis lately), Michel Marre (euphonium), Simon Goubert on drums, and Claude Tchamitchian on bass, plus Domancich herself at the piano. I find her to be an impressive piano player, as well as an interesting composer/arranger. The two brass frontline makes this a rather unusual affair, although it's far from being free or funny-ratish. However, the CD features beautiful playing, thoroughly european in quality, often full of "melos", sometimes almost like dancing music - definitely not jazz as far as hardbop-fascits criteria go..., but definitely beautiful music by a handful of great musicians.
Then I finally got into the "Two Ts for a Lovely T" box of Cecil's, having listened to the first four CDs in a row - very good, very impressive, and very easily accessible!
ubu