Release Date: 15 January 2016
Label: ECM
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 602547593931
Genres: Jazz  Contemporary  
Release Date: 15 January 2016
Label: ECM
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 602547593931
Genres: Jazz  Contemporary  
Description
After two exemplary ECM discs in the company of Andy Sheppard, Michel Benita has an album with his own group, Ethics, marking his label debut as a leader.
The Ethics band is international, and the Algiers-born bassist leads a line-up comprised of a flugelhornist from Fribourg, Switzerland, a koto player from Tokyo, a guitarist from Drøbak, Norway, and a French drummer who once lived in Turkey as a member of the Istanbul Symphony. The group's music, correspondingly, flows - like the glistening river of the title - beyond borders.
Alongside his own compositions and a piece by Mieko Miyazaki, Benita includes a tune from Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell and one from Norwegian composer and organist Eyvind Alnæs (1872-1932). A strongly lyrical tendency prevails, Mathieu Michel's graceful flugelhorn foregrounded, with koto, bass and drums interacting creatively at the band's core. Colours of folk and colours of jazz are blended in Michel Benita's writing, multi-idiomatic in a very natural way. Eivind Aarset's guitars and what Benita calls "organic electronics" gently envelop the music. The whole sound-picture is finely-realized in the responsive acoustics of the Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, where 'River Silver' was recorded in April 2015, with Manfred Eicher producing.
Benita favours long-term musical associations. Ethics has existed for five years already, with unchanged personnel and the players in the group have also collaborated in other contexts. Michel Benita and Eivind Aarset work regularly together in Andy Sheppard's quartet – as on the critically-acclaimed album 'Surrounded By Sea' – and the guitarist is also a member of a quintet led by Matthieu Michel. Matthieu has also worked with Michel Benita in bands large and small, while Benita and drummer Philippe Garcia have also often worked in tandem, and appear together on recordings of, for instance, trumpeter Erik Truffaz.
Tracklisting
Tomasz Stanko Quartet
Norma Winstone & Kit Downes
Oded Tzur
Kenny Wheeler, Lee Konitz, Dave Holland & Bill Frisell
Fred Hersch
John Taylor, Norma Winstone & Kenny Wheeler
Keith Jarrett & Jan Garbarek
Jan Garbarek Quartet
Tomasz Stanko Quartet
Jiem
Ant Law & Brigitte Beraha
Tom Green Septet
Patchwork Jazz Orchestra
Elaine Delmar
Ross McHenry
Open Thread (Peggy Lee, Julien Wilson, Theo Carbo, Dylan van der Schyff)