Mathieu Soucy: Recollecting

Guitarist Mathieu Soucy, a 2019 graduate of Canada's McGill University, in Montreal, hits the ground running with a splendid debut album, Recollecting, on which he guides a talented quartet of young musicians through seven of his engaging compositions plus Thelonious Monk's "Reflections" and the well-traveled Rodgers and Hart standard, "Where or When" (sung by Humber College alum Caity Gyorgy).

Gyorgy is heard on one other number, "Thinker and a Fool," a bright samba whose cryptic lyric is her own. Elsewhere, Soucy's nimble guitar charts the course, followed in lock step by pianist Gentiane MG, bassist Mike De Masi and drummer Jacob Wutzke. Soucy, a natural-born swinger with technique to burn, lays his cards on the table without pause on the brisk, bop-flavored opener, "Lennie's Changes," wherein Gentiane MG shows he is no laggard in that department either, and Wutzke adds his own exclamation mark.

After "Where or When," on which Gyorgy tries swinging and scatting with mixed results, the quartet ensnares the seductive jazz waltz "Turner Days" (with a perceptive solo by de Masi) and handsome "Blues for Barry" before Gyorgy's return. "Mike's Mudra" is another up-tempo romp whose tantalizing melody is undergirded by clever ad libs from Soucy, Gentiane MG and de Masi. Following the well-paved "5th Avenue," on which Gentiane MG solos perceptively and Soucy and Wutzke follow suit, Soucy has the meditative "Reflections" to himself (and does quite well with it) before the quartet returns for the sunlit finale, "Recollecting," wherein everyone shines.

While it is not plausible to surmise where Soucy's career path may lead, what can be affirmed from Recollecting is that he has taken a more than respectable first step.