“To come back to this month’s releases, let’s start with Michel El Malem’s album ” Dedications ” published on the Inner Circle Music label founded by his saxophonist colleague Greg Osby and distributed in France by L’Autre Distribution. As in ” Reflets ” (Prix du Disque Français de l’Académie du Jazz in 2011), El Malem has surrounded himself with a quartet of superb musicians : Romain Pilon on guitar (what fluidity in his solo on Mr MC!), Marc Copland on piano (class!), Stéphane Kerecki on bass (what a sound in his intro to Lieb On The Road) and the fiery Luc Isenmann on drums. As for the leader, those who don’t know him will be struck by the power of his tenor and the variety of his compositions where he never draws the cover, letting a true collective nourished by the talent of each one. All this is served by a superlative recording by Gérard de Haro of Studio La Buissonne. »

Source : Le blog de Jazznicknames – Les News 2021 – February