Home »
Jazz Articles » Album Review » Daniel Thouin: Organique
Daniel Thouin: Organique
Hemingway said good writing comes from what you leave out, a lesson pianist Daniel Thouin and his Montreal-based partners have applied to music on their new release,
Organique (I’m guessing French for "organic"). They leave out the bass on the opener, the splang-splang-a-lang cymbal pattern just about everywhere else, any statement of time in one of the ballads – they even leave out the blowing on the last track. And when a space opens for them to rehash, retread, or re-bop, they leave it out. Instead of "here’s a little Herbie, now here’s a little McCoy, now here’s a little Bud," they make stuff up. They improvise. Not that the music is free of influences: "Blues Pour Blackwell" implies Monk (and Blackwell); "Warne-ing" implies Jarrett (and Marsh); the Jarrett/Motion, Jarrett/DeJohnette shadow touches all the music on Organique, but Thouin, drummer Karl Jannuska and the rest have learned and forgotten.
Even the less original moments lead somewhere. "Damas" set off my cliché detector when I first heard the intro. The tune surprised me, though, with angular melodic clusters and a passionate B section which nods at either "Giant Steps" or the bridge to "Have You Met Mrs. Jones," depending on your decade of reference. On "La Spine," Thouin has, to misquote somebody-or-other, a young man’s fascination with the symmetric diminished scale (half-step/whole-step). But watch that space for further developments. If he digs around he may find a new chromaticism using the old sym/dim as a framework.
Dan Thouin, Norman Lachapelle, Yannick Rieu, Steve Kaldestad, Karl Jannuska – their resumes sport a bunch of other French-Canadian names Gotham-centric jazz fans won’t know. But from the evidence on Organique there must be a hell of scene in Montreal populated with real improvisers who know what not to play.
Track Listing
Blues pour Blackwell I; La Spine; Cloud; Bzigu
Personnel
Daniel Thouin, piano; Yannick Rieu, tenor saxophone; Steve Kaldestad, tenor saxophone; Norman LaChapelle, Bass; Karl Jannuska, drums.
Album information
Title: Organique
| Year Released: 2001
| Record Label: Effendi Records
PREVIOUS / NEXT
Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.
Go Ad Free!
To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to
future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by
making a donation today.