Toine Thys/Orlando: Orlando (Hypnote/digital outlets)

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Toine Thys/Orlando: Orlando (Hypnote/digital outlets)

It's a wee bit confusing: It seems this jazz quarter called Orlando but it is lead by saxophonist Toine Thys who also gets his name on the cover, but on digital outlets the album title is Orlando so . . . 

And while this came out digitally late last year we bring it to attention now because the French-Belgian group just won the Octave de la Musique jazz award in Belgium, and only now can get behind it by touring.

Of course they won't be coming to New Zealand but here's a chance to hear what goes on in European jazz.

And this is very tasty in a meditative, consider way by this excellent band of Thys, drummer Antoine Pierre (who has played with Joshua Redman), French acoustic bassist Florent Nisse and pianist Maxime Sanchez (Magic Malik, and those household names Flash Pig).

Thys – sometimes on bass clarinet which brings a dark woody tone to proceedings – is unhurried and drummer Pierre sets the appropriate tempo leaving plenty of air which none of the players rush to fill.

The result is classic, mainstream jazz with just enough tension behind the romantic but never saccharine balladry.

In that regard, Virginia Woolf whose novel of the same name gave its title to this album/group wrote, “Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy.”

And on material like the slightly moody and bluesy Gospel Simple and the especially appealing Angel de la Guarda lead in by pianist Sanchez and allowing bassist Nisse to step forward, you really do understand that sensibility.

Award-winning jazz from our friends in the north.

Well worth checking out.

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You can hear this album on Spotify here





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