By way of introducing Grappelly – or Grappelli, as he spells it these days – there are jazz violinists I’ve enjoyed more: Joe Venuti has all the technique and tone, plus a more fertile imagination. Stuff Smith simply outswung ’em all. That aside, Stephane has matured steadily from the somewhat hysterical salon fiddler of Django days into a musician of depth and timeless expressive powers. His warm sound and romanticism easily bridge the generations to blend with Burton’s gossamer vibes textures. The results are, at times, ethereal.
Burton is quick to sense the underlying melancholy of the violinist’s own Arpege; their performance is one in a thousand, a rapport which inspires both. It bears repeated hearings, never wears.
Similar shimmering wonders on Miles’ Blue and the haunting Rain, by Michael Gibbs. Daphne, a Reinhardt QHCF memento, swings with abandon but never loses the airiness. Burton’s solo does fitting obeisance to Hamp with no sacrifice of identity. It all climaxes in a breathtaking set of stop-time choruses from both soloists.
One very small reservation. Swallow’s electric bass, however superbly played, provides occasional reminder that nothing with a plug at one end can reproduce the resonances peculiar to the ‘natural’ instruments, especially in the rhythm section setting. Not a question either of notes or volume as much as overtones; the partials, to my ear, tend to isolate bass and drums from one another rather than knit them together.
But leave that. Play Arpege or Rain and rejoice in music of excellence.
Discography
Daphne; Blue In Green; Falling Grace; Here’s That Rainy Day (16½ min) – Coquette; Sweet Rain; The Night Has A Thousand Eyes; Arpege; Eiderdown (18½ min)
Gary Burton (vb); Stephane Grappelli (vln); Steve Swallow (el-bs); Bill Goodwin (dm). Paris, 4 November 1969.
(Atlantic K 40378 £2.29)
