If all the
column inches allotted to Yazz Ahmed’s second release on Naim records were laid
end to end, they’d reach from here to her Bahrain birth place and back. Okay,
so I just made that up, but La Saboteuse
does seem to have caught the interest of professional and amateur critics
alike, occupying acres of print and megabytes of cyberspace.
Considering
this, finding something new to say about it is no easy task, but I feel
compelled to write about it anyhow. Prior to hearing it, reviews I’d read
universally piled on the acclaim. Despite my scepticism of extravagant praise,
I have to say that it’s all fully deserved. If you haven’t heard this album,
you really, really need to get hold of a copy.
On the
strength of reviews, Yazz’s previous Finding
My Way Home album and, of course Jazzy G’s recommendation, I caught her King’s
Place septet gig last November. It became my highlight of a day crammed with
stand-out London Jazz Festival performances. I joined the back of a long queue
for signed copies of the album afterwards, and it’s been a frequent flyer on my
Hi-Fi since.
The
recording gets about as close to capturing the live vibe as a studio album can,
but these aren’t brash, in-your-face tunes; they’re quietly seductive. I defy
anyone to hear the beautiful Bloom,
and not be beguiled. Yazz’s Bahraini-British influences shine through
melodically and rhythmically with electronica adding additional atmospherics. An unusual line-up (piano/keyboards,
vibraphone, guitar, percussion, bass, drums, trumpet/flugel horn) leaves a
surprising amount of space for improvisation, thanks to some inspired
arrangements. The addition of Shabaka Hutchings’ bass clarinet provides the
perfect counter to Yazz’s long, exquisite horn lines, and Martin France’s
frenetic drumming somehow emphasises the subtlety of the overall sound.
This is an
exotic, heady mix that insistently, inexorably reels you in. I put on La
Saboteuse while working, only to find myself listening intently to its complex
layers without realising I’d forgotten what I was supposed to be doing.
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