Daniel Humair Live in Paris

Daniel Humair, in both music and painting, is concerned with the figurative and the abstract. Here, we wind the clock back to 1972, when he the Swiss-born drummer was a valued sideman for American musicians touring in Europe. Under this guise, he collaborated with the likes of Chet Baker and Eric Dolphy. But beyond his high-profile partnerships, Humair was a pioneer of European jazz. He built musical relationships with artists like Martial Solal and here combines with a quintet featuring Franco Ambrosetti on flugelhorn, George Gruntz on keyboards (who contributes compositions to the setlist), Gordon Beck, also on keyboards and Ron Mathewson a bass maestro. 

The most exceptional moments in the concert are perhaps when Humair is left to his own devices behind the kit, however. Wielding both sticks and mallets, his solos are freewheeling expressions of complex emotions gathering, as in his paintings, a strange but beautiful geometry.