Some Orchestre National de Jazz by request, limited time only

This is a French big band which was created in the mid 80s when there was a resurgence of classic acoustic jazz styles.  Note that the inaugural album in 1986 featured and was led by sax player Francois Jeanneau, whose first three albums I will post separately next time.  As it says on discogs, Francois also plays flutes, keyboards and synthesizers.  This explains why there are such brilliant compositions by him on this 2-LP set (rendered down like duck fat from 2 breasts to one CD missing a lot of the meat), as well as on his masterpieces from the mid-70s (come back for those if you like duck).

His fantasy in bop is strikingly non-conventional, the kind of rendition that I would frankly be shocked if I heard in our local city's jazz festival which I've made fun of repeatedly in the past.  And given that its spirited and almost atonal originality might lead to cardiac arrest in some of the older jazz fans who still dig "Body and Soul" or "Sweet Georgia Brown", I'm actually hoping they never play anything like it there, and for the added reason I won't feel I'm missing anything by skipping it for the 24th straight year in a row:





The album is rounded out by some compositions by the immortal Mike Gibbs, Gil Evans, Christian Chevallier (anyone remember that name? for reference see here), etc.  Altogether, a really really enjoyable outing by this very professional band, not afraid of being somewhat progressive in a kinda hackneyed genre (i.e. big band).  Not as progressive altogether as Dauner's United Jazz + Rock, though.

Subsequently they seem to have lost their direction in the absence of conductor Jeanneau, with '87 with Antoine Herve proving disappointing for me.  One track that is not hit delete instantly and moreover is appropriate for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, is Dans la Neige:





That same progressive spirit that blows in like a 70s ghost with synthesizer and digital strings is completely missing from the remainder of the album.  Yeah, video killed the radio star, and the 80s killed prog.

Finally, in 1988 we have a trip to Africa, a musical trip which I generally avoid due to the incessant percussive monotony, which, presumably, hypnotizes the musicians to the point they never leave the one key or even chord for twenty minutes until the producer presumably says he has to take a bathroom break.  There was one good track on that particular outing.  See if you can find it.

Note that in 1989 a release was made with my old French favourite Claude Barthelemy (I don't have that one).  Two that I did find are with our immortal Robert Wyatt (2009) and Astor Piazzolla (2012), whose compositions I love.  Unfortunately both of those later ones proved quite disappointing, which was a surprise to me.