Although the name is French and the sound vaguely African, the group come from St. Louis, Missouri, where they have been playing together for seven years. The axis around which the music revolves is the drumming on bongos and congas of Percy James – and it is also he I presume who emits from time to time the kind of tribal yelps that spur on the group rhythm to even greater rhythmic heights.
Jeter Thompson’s piano is sparse, in the modern manner, but it fits beautifully into the overall pattern of the group sound. His playing on the long and exciting Brazil is extraordinarily percussive and full of fire, his variations on Summertime quite unique and very melodic. The sleeve note tells us that nothing here was improvised, but that it was all carefully arranged beforehand. Listening to the bouncing, hard-driving rhythm on Watusi Warrior, which builds to a tremendous climax, it is a statement hard to believe, for it is hard to reconcile such exciting, abandoned music with much preconceived preparation. The same can be said of Taste Of Honey. Here again an African influence by the use of the Afro-American drumming is very evident. Thompson’s piano is very pretty and he is finely backed by bass and drums. The very slow Stay My Love, composed by Thompson, is not quite so effective, but it is maybe a tune which will grow on one. An exciting and very unusual album which richly deserves a listening.
Discography
Watusi Warrior; Summertime; Slay, My Love; A Taste Of Honey (21 min) – More; Sheryl Likes Bananas; Brazil (21 min)
Jeter Thompson (p); Richard Simmons (bs); Albert St. James (d); Percy James (bgs/cgas).
(Brunswick LAT or STA 8623 32s. 2d.)
