Raphael Imbert is a French saxophonist based in the city of Marseille. He studied jazz at the city’s conservatoire and “N_Y Project” is his third release for the Zig Zag label following 2006’s “Newtopia-Suite Elegiaque” and “Bach-Coltrane” in 2008. As his previous releases suggest Imbert is a talented composer and is also a musician who likes to view jazz in a wider historical and sociological context.

Bearing this in mind it is perhaps not surprising that the music “N_Y Project” developed as the direct result of academic study. Imbert travelled to New York with the aid of a grant from the “Villa Medicis hors les murs” to make a study of spiritual influences on living and past jazzmen. He spoke to many contemporary musicians among them Harry Allen, Duke Jordan, Greg Osby, Graham Haynes, Jerome Sabbagh and Henry Grimes, investigated the archives of Harlem’s Schomburg Centre and travelled to the Deep South where the music began. At the same time Imbert was checking out the current New York scene and established a musical friendship with bassist Joe Martin and drummer Gerald Cleaver, the two musicians who join him on this record.

Both Martin and Cleaver have sideman credits as long as your arm and are also band leaders in their own right. I was lucky enough to see Cleaver play in a group led by bassist Ben Allison at the 2007 Cheltenham Jazz Festival and was hugely impressed. His playing on “N_Y Project” is little short of astonishing and is a major factor in the record’s success.

The seeds for “N_Y Project” were sown by Imbert’s earlier “Nine Spirit” group which was formed to play the “sacred music” of Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and others. “N_Y Project pays homage to this triumvirate in a programme that attempts to capture something of the jazz heritage of New York City in a contemporary context. As the liner notes put it “From Duke Ellington’s drums of Harlem to an evocation of the master of the New York underground John Zorn, by way of The Cloisters, a tribute to Albert Ayler, the hustle and bustle of New York life, and Coltrane’s meditation on Central Park West.” That it all works so well, especially in such an exposed context as the saxophone trio, is a tribute to the musicianship of Imbert and his colleagues with the sheer musicality of Cleaver’s playing a huge factor.

As hinted by the album notes the programme begins with Ellington’s “Echoes Of Harlem” and ends with Coltrane s “Central Park West”. These two pieces by the masters bookend eleven Imbert originals which highlight his composing abilities whilst simultaneously allowing plenty of room for improvisation and self expression.

It’s Cleaver’s drums that open “Echoes Of Harlem”, simultaneously primitive and modern. Martin’s bass soon joins in to anchor it all and Imbert’s sax dances over the top in a seamless parade of ideas.
The mood is celebratory, a homage to the energy of a great city. Even when Imbert drops out the muscular musicality of Martin holds the interest through a robust bass solo. The piece ends as it began with the colourful rhythms of Cleaver’s drums.

“Lullaby from the beginning” evokes a suitably nocturnal big city mood with long,yearning saxophone lines and sparse yet colourful rhythmic accompaniment.

The two “Cloisters Sanctuary” pieces are presumably a tribute to Manhattan’s famous art museum. “Introduction” is fragile and impressionistic, mainly featuring just bass and sax. “Cloisters Sanctuary” itself though is more celebratory with, at times, an almost early music feel to Imbert’s playing, an allusion no doubt to the museum’s medieval subject matter. A strong melody provides the jumping off point for some mercurial improvising on soprano sax backed by Martin’s busy bass and the dense, polyrhythmic drumming of Cleaver. It’s hugely impressive and features some astonishing circular breathing from Imbert before a final gentle coda.

Imbert’s tribute to Albert Ayler doesn’t attempt to replicate the fabled intensity of the great man. Instead “Albert Everywhere” is a tender, impressionistic homage to one of jazz’s most enigmatic figures, the title perhaps an acknowledgement of Ayler’s influence on contemporary musicians. The vocalisations in Imbert’s playing are perhaps an attempt to convey the suffering of Ayler who was found dead in still unexplained circumstances in New York’s East River in 1970.

The free-wheeling My Klezmer Dream” tips the hat to New York’s klezmer tradition and perhaps acknowledges the great John Zorn’s Jewish roots. Imbert’s sax swoops and soars in the best klezmer tradition as Martin and Cleaver whip up their trademark polyrhythmic storm behind him. Once again it’s a celebration as is the following “Struggle For Manhattan’s Life” despite the post apocalyptic images suggested by the title. Instead it’s that evocation of the “hustle and bustle of New York life” as mentioned in the liner notes. The intro is almost “free” and the piece builds gradually with a high degree of interaction between the players before bursting into frenetic activity.
It’s reminiscent of the music of Ornette Coleman and when Imbert starts playing two saxes simultaneously to simulate the blaring horns of the New York traffic the spirit of Rahsaan Roland Kirk can be added to the growing list of influences.

“Struggle” segues into “NYC Breakdowncalling” a further evocation of city traffic featuring more Kirk like double horn blasting. The second half of the piece is more considered, a coda to the sound and fury that has gone before. Throughout both these pieces the power and technique of Cleaver is little short of incredible and Imbert’s playing is pretty damn impressive too.

The nest four pieces are a kind of suite under the generic title of “The Zen Bowman”. The opening part “Prayer” is more forceful than the title might suggest with Imbert blowing powerfully but fluently in stream of consciousness style over insistent drums and bass. “Surrender” gradually breaks down into impressionistic bat squeaks and almost impossibly feathery arco bass before seguing into the lengthy “Target” which simmers gently before coming to the boil with some more fiery playing from the leader as Martin and Cleaver stoke the fires. The darkly brooding “Arrow” brings the “suite” to a close with sepulchral arco bass, delicate atmospheric percussion and weirdly vocalised sax inflections.

To close John Coltrane’s “Central Park West” is a lengthy exploration with some full on playing from Imbert as Martin and Cleaver swirl about him. The trio take the tune a fair way out before resolving things in peaceful, almost elegiac fashion.

“N_Y Project” is an excellent album that reveals Imbert to be an excellent composer and a fine all round saxophonist ( he is heard on alto, soprano and tenor) more than capable of holding his own with a crack American rhythm section. The album is an evocative journey through New York’s jazz scene past and present and given the sparse nature of the instrumentation Imbert and his colleagues cover an impressive stylistic and emotional range surpassing the normal limitations of the saxophone trio. The three players impose their own musical personalities on the material and Imbert’s tributes to his heroes never sound like mere pastiche. This is a vivid portrait of a great jazz city as seen through European eyes and the music has a real cinematic quality. All this plus Cleaver’s marvellous drumming too. Highly recommended.   

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