This is improvised music, featuring the compositions of the iconic Steve Lacy. Lyricists have contributed words to some of his compositions. Lyrics are printed out in the accompanying booklet. They include the following writers: Anna Akhmatova, Samuel Beckett, Robert Creeley, Bob Kaufman and Judith Malina. The star of this show is Jean Derome with his innovative and improvised approach to experimental music on alto saxophone, bass flute, and also using his voice.

This is Jean Derome’s second homage to the innovative composer and soprano saxophonist, Steve Lacy (1934-2004). The ensemble opens with Jack’s Blues featuring a stellar alto saxophone solo by Derome. His vocals blend with Karen Young, reminding me of 1960s and the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross style.

Derome is the recipient of numerous awards including the Freddie Stone Award (1992), in 2014 the Prix Collegien de Musique Contemporaine, and six Prix Opus Awards. He continues his groundbreaking creativity on this newly released album.

The nucleus of this production is Derome’s longtime trio members including bassist, Normand Guilbeault and Pierre Tanquay on drums. He added Alexandre Grogg on piano and Karen Young’s vocals.

All the melodies of these songs are challenging, with unexpected intervals and difficult harmonics. This is experimental jazz that has spanned his fifty-year career. Jean Derome is an accomplished composer, a respected multi-instrumentalist and improviser whose discography celebrates over one-hundred album releases, with just as many compositions written for film, theater and dance.

The Straight-ahead vocalese continues on Sands, 2: Jump sung in French by Young and Derome is an introduction into what I really enjoy hearing which is Jean Derome’s excellence on the alto saxophone. His inventive and infectious playing has been influenced by Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, Eric Dolphy, and Anthony Braxton, but reflects his own style and charisma. Alexandre Grogg offers an innovative piano solo.

I’m always fascinated by musicians and composers who step totally outside the box to pursue their own expression and creativity in ways not-so-familiar. French Canadian avant-garde artist, Jean Derome, has been doing this for half a century. He is an individualist. Fasten your seatbelt!

Paying tribute to a musical giant is never an easy undertaking. Paying tribute to Steve Lacy is an even greater challenge. Lacy’s unique artistic universe at the crossroads of jazz, literature, poetry, free improvisation, and contemporary composition, remains one of the most compelling in modern music. To approach it requires not only technical mastery but also imagination, courage, and an understanding that the greatest homage is never imitation. With Le sourire, Jean Derome & Somebody Special achieve precisely that.

Far more than a simple tribute album, Le sourire is an act of artistic dialogue across generations. It is Jean Derome’s second recording devoted to Steve Lacy, following the remarkable Somebody Special (2019), from which the ensemble itself takes its name.

Rather than revisiting Lacy’s music from a nostalgic perspective, Derome and his musicians embrace its restless curiosity, its literary intelligence, and its permanent search for new forms of expression.

The result is an album that perfectly embodies everything that has made Jean Derome one of Canada’s most fascinating musical figures for over four decades.

As co-founder of the legendary Ambiances Magnétiques label, Derome has continuously refused stylistic limitations. Composer, saxophonist, flautist, improviser, filmmaker’s collaborator, theatre composer, explorer of both tonal and atonal worlds, his career is remarkable for its diversity and unwavering artistic integrity. With nearly one hundred recordings (!!) and an equally impressive catalogue of music written for film, theatre, and dance, he has established himself as one of Canada’s most original creative voices.

His numerous distinctions, including six Opus Awards, among them Album of the Year for Musiques de chambres and Résistances, only confirm what attentive listeners have known for years: Jean Derome is one of those rare musicians who continually reinvents himself while remaining instantly recognizable. And that personality is immediately evident throughout Le sourire.

The album explores one of Steve Lacy’s most fascinating achievements: his extraordinary catalogue of songs based on texts by some of the twentieth century’s greatest poets and writers.

Rather than choosing familiar jazz standards, Lacy sought inspiration from voices as diverse as Anna Akhmatova, Samuel Beckett, Robert Creeley, Bob Kaufman, and Judith Malina, transforming their words into musical landscapes of remarkable originality.

Jean Derome & Somebody Special approach this repertoire with profound respect but never with reverence in the limiting sense of the word. Their interpretations remain faithful to Lacy’s spirit while allowing their own collective personality to shine brilliantly.

Indeed, one of the album’s greatest qualities is its remarkable balance between precision and freedom.

The music is unmistakably jazz, yet it constantly stretches beyond conventional expectations. Angular melodies, surprising harmonic turns, subtle rhythmic displacements, and moments of exhilarating improvisation coexist naturally. There are echoes of Thelonious Monk, whose influence on Lacy remains unmistakable, but there is equally the unmistakable voice of Jean Derome, playful, adventurous, slightly mischievous, always inventive.

Throughout the album, swing never disappears, even during the most harmonically adventurous passages. This ability to remain engaging while embracing complexity is one of the defining characteristics of Derome’s music.

The opening Jack’s Blues, based on a poem by Robert Creeley, immediately establishes the ensemble’s approach. The Smile, from Anna Akhmatova’s poetry, perfectly justifies the album’s title. Delicate yet emotionally rich, it unfolds with quiet elegance, allowing the expressive power of both text and music to emerge naturally. Its companion piece, The Cuckoo, explores contrasting moods with remarkable sensitivity.

The remarkable Beckett trilogy, Sands 1: Stand, Sands 2: Jump, and Sands 3: Fall, forms one of the album’s intellectual and musical centres. Beckett’s minimalist, enigmatic language finds an ideal musical counterpart in Derome’s refined arrangements. The three movements gradually evolve through subtle transformations, illustrating how jazz improvisation and literary modernism can nourish one another in fascinating ways.

The two settings of Judith Malina’s poetry, Love and Politics and I Heard the Indian Sage, deepen the album’s philosophical dimension. Malina’s texts seem particularly well suited to Steve Lacy’s musical imagination, and Jean Derome captures their emotional complexity beautifully.

Judith Malina’s I Heard the Indian Sage, dedicated to Allen Ginsberg, carries far more than a literary tribute. Its meditation on impermanence, spiritual awakening, death (“There is death / because we are nothing”), love (“There is love / because we are crazy / And want to be happy / forever”), and the illusion of certainty echoes the ideals that shaped both Ginsberg and the entire Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac: a relentless quest for truth beyond social conventions, an openness to Eastern philosophies, and a profound belief in artistic and personal freedom. Steve Lacy was naturally drawn to this poetic universe, and Jean Derome & Somebody Special capture its essence with remarkable sensitivity. Throughout Le sourire, one senses that same Beat spirit, a music that values spontaneity, risk, introspection, and the constant crossing of artistic boundaries. Like the writings of Ginsberg and Kerouac, the album invites us not simply to listen, but to embark on an inner journey where poetry, improvisation, and freedom become inseparable.

Steve Lacy wasn’t just a brilliant saxophonist, he was someone who immersed himself in literature. Choosing poets like Beckett, Creeley, Kaufman, Akhmatova, and Malina wasn’t accidental; it reflects his conviction that poetry and jazz share a common language of rhythm, silence, surprise, and freedom.

The album concludes with Heaven, another Robert Creeley setting, offering a beautifully understated ending. Rather than seeking dramatic closure, the music gently dissolves into contemplation, leaving the listener with the impression that this conversation with Steve Lacy continues beyond the final note.

Throughout all eleven pieces, the musicians display extraordinary collective sensitivity. Nobody attempts to dominate the ensemble. Every voice contributes to a larger musical conversation in which composition, improvisation, poetry, and silence possess equal importance. Listening becomes an act of discovery, each return revealing new relationships between text and melody, between harmony and rhythm, between written material and spontaneous invention.

One of the album’s greatest accomplishments lies precisely here: Le sourire never feels like an academic reconstruction of Steve Lacy’s music. Instead, it becomes a living continuation of his artistic philosophy. Like Lacy himself, Derome refuses to separate literature from music, intellect from emotion, structure from freedom.

This is contemporary jazz in its finest sense: music that dares to venture beyond established paths without ever abandoning the essential communicative power of jazz itself.

The recording also serves as a reminder of the extraordinary artistic importance of Ambiances Magnétiques, a label that has consistently championed adventurous music while maintaining uncompromising artistic standards. Le sourire fits perfectly within that tradition of creative freedom and intellectual curiosity.

Ultimately, this album is not simply about Steve Lacy. It is about artistic transmission. It is about how great music continues to inspire new generations without becoming frozen in time. Jean Derome & Somebody Special understand that the finest tribute one can pay to an innovator is to continue innovating.

With Le sourire, they have created a recording that is intelligent, moving, playful, provocative, and profoundly musical. It celebrates Steve Lacy while remaining unmistakably Jean Derome. Few tribute albums achieve such a delicate balance.

Like the smile evoked by its title, this magnificent recording reveals itself gradually, subtle, enigmatic, generous, and quietly unforgettable.

A superb tribute to one of jazz’s most singular visionaries, interpreted by one of Canada’s own great musical explorers.

Another fresh album released via the Ambiances Magnetiques label on April 17th, 2k26 is Le Sourire, the new longplay outing by flute player, composer and saxophone player Jean Derome who, once again, performs with and writes for the band x ensemble outfit named Somebody Special on this one. Over the course of eleven pieces and a total runtime of approx. 63 minutes and a set of eleven songs the group pays homage to 1934-born composer and soprano sax player Steve Lacy who passed away in 2004 at age 70, laying down seductive and well fascinating Jazz grooves with pieces like The Smile, presenting opulent emotional Chansons with a deep twist with tunes like The Cuckoo / Sands and Stand whilst Jump and its innate fire absolutely heat up every peak time Jazz dancefloor, the spine-tingling Love And Politics and its story-telling weigh in a bit of a theatrical / stage production element peaking in dramatically rushed piano movements whereas especially the intro sequence of Morning Joy and its hard mechanical piano tones might probably justify to think about the term Industrial Jazz as a potential genre drawer even though the expressive vocals and hot uptempo grooves rather gravitate toward Dancefloor Jazz-adjacent vibes for a reason. Defo a fascinating ride and a highly recommended album, this.

Le sourire evidenzia come la musica possa ancora costituire un luogo di pensiero. Derome e il suo ensemble dimostrano che l’eredità di Lacy può essere ripensata senza ricorrere a formule celebrative, ma attraverso un lavoro di scavo che coinvolge la forma, il colore sonoro, la relazione tra parola e suono e la dimensione temporale.

La riflessione che Jean Derome dedica da anni all’opera di Steve Lacy trova in Le sourire un punto di particolare interesse, poiché l’album riattiva un territorio estetico in cui poesia, forma musicale e pensiero critico confluiscono in un’unica prospettiva. Lacy aveva costruito un percorso in cui la parola poetica non fungeva da semplice sostegno testuale, ma da principio generativo; Derome, affiancato dal quintetto Somebody Special, prosegue questa linea con una lucidità maturata attraverso un lungo confronto con la scrittura lacyana.

Karen Young (voce), Alexandre Grogg (piano), Normand Guilbeault (contrabbasso) e Pierre Tanguay (batteria) concorrono alla definizione di un impianto sonoro che alterna rigore e libertà, e che trova nella voce un punto di irradiazione in grado di influenzare l’intero discorso musicale. Young modella i testi di Robert Creeley, Anna Achmatova, Samuel Beckett, Judith Malina e Bob Kaufman con una sensibilità che unisce padronanza tecnica e attenzione semantica. La sua emissione non indulge in effetti ornamentali, ma delinea le parole con una cura quasi filologica, lasciando emergere la loro struttura ritmica e il loro peso concettuale. La voce, in questo contesto, non svolge una funzione illustrativa, ma agisce come vettore critico, mettendo in rilievo le zone più complesse del linguaggio poetico. Derome interviene con un uso del sax alto e del flauto basso che non mira a evocare Lacy, ma a dialogare con la sua eredità. Le sue linee non cercano l’effetto, ma tracciano itinerari che si insinuano nelle armonie con una logica affine alle geometrie di autori come Franco Donatoni e Iannis Xenakis. L’attenzione alla micro-variazione, alla qualità del respiro e alla distribuzione degli accenti mette in luce una concezione del suono come materia da scolpire. Il colore acustico che ne deriva assume una funzione strutturale, poiché definisce una temporalità che non coincide con la scansione metrica, ma con una pulsazione mentale, quasi una prosodia strumentale. Il lavoro armonico di Grogg sostiene siffatta impostazione mediante sovrapposizioni intervallari costruite su quarte, seconde e tritoni, che generano una fisionomia del suono volutamente instabile. Non si tratta di un’instabilità gratuita, ma di una strategia che permette alla voce di Young di inserirsi in un tessuto sonoro sempre ricettivo. Guilbeault e Tanguay regolano la densità complessiva, modulando la presenza del contrabbasso e della batteria secondo una logica quasi cameristica. Il contrabbasso introduce figure che non cercano la pulsazione, ma la definizione di un profilo armonico; la batteria interviene con una gestualità che privilegia il dettaglio, la sfumatura e la micro-articolazione.

La scelta dei testi poetici non risponde a un criterio illustrativo, ma a un principio di affinità intellettuale. In I Heard the Indian Sage, Judith Malina propone una visione che oscilla tra ironia e desiderio di liberazione, e Derome accentua questa ambivalenza mediante una scrittura che alterna zone rarefatte e momenti di maggiore tensione. La chiusa — «Three Is Love / Because We Are Crazy / And Want To Be Happy / Forever» — non viene trattata come un epigramma, ma alla stregua di un punto di frizione che invita l’ascoltatore a interrogare la natura stessa del desiderio. In Love And Politics, sempre su testo di Malina, la narrazione del viaggio a Cipro e dell’incontro con Afrodite acquista una dimensione quasi mitologica, non per effetto di un’enfasi retorica, ma per l’attitudine del quintetto di far emergere la stratificazione simbolica del testo. La voce di Young sottolinea le ambiguità e le incrinature interne, mentre l’ensemble costruisce un ambiente sonoro che non illustra, ma commenta criticamente. Il rapporto tra parola e suono, in questo album, non si riduce alla giustapposizione, ma sviluppa una relazione di reciproca trasformazione. La poesia influisce sulla forma musicale, e la musica restituisce alla poesia una dimensione temporale che ne amplifica la portata. Questo processo trova un momento particolarmente significativo in Heaven, su poesia di Robert Creeley, dedicata a Irving Berlin. La pagina musicale assume un carattere meditativo che non indulge nella malinconia, ma riflette sulla condizione umana mediante una serie di domande che non cercano risposta. La chiusa — «If Life Were Easy / And It All Worked Out, / What Would This Sadness / Be About» — non viene trattata come un epigramma, ma come un punto di sospensione che invita l’ascoltatore a proseguire interiormente il discorso.

Le sourire evidenzia come la musica possa ancora costituire un luogo di pensiero. Derome e il suo ensemble dimostrano che l’eredità di Lacy può essere ripensata senza ricorrere a formule celebrative, ma attraverso un lavoro di scavo che coinvolge la forma, il colore sonoro, la relazione tra parola e suono e la dimensione temporale. Ne deriva un ascolto che non pretende immediatezza, ma sollecita un’attenzione vigile, in grado di cogliere le sfumature e le tensioni interne di un progetto che unisce rigore analitico e sensibilità poetica.

For those unaware, Steve Lacy was a quintessential artist of late modernism. His body of work is ample evidence of his refusal to bypass his forebears in pursuit of so-called ‘innovation.” He had to work through them. He called himself a “materialist,” an idiosyncratic use of the word describing his obsession with the material from which he made his music —— his saxophone as well as the countless artists whose work his œuvre synthesized.

Through such a crystalizing process, his music grew increasingly singular, while always also paying homage to his antecedents, working through the material of, to name but a few, Sidney Bechet, Thelonious Monk, Mark Rothko, or Samuel Beckett.

“I don’t know if Jean Derome would call himself a “materialist,” but such a Lacyan ethic adheres throughout his own notable body of work,” says Scott Thomson, Montréal [x-25]. “So, it felt apt when he delved into Lacy songs on Somebody Special (2019), which introduced this superb quintet.”

Le sourire represents a deeper dive, extending Jean’s loving attention to the material at hand, with Lacy’s settings of Beckett poems in French (the little-known Sands suite) at its core. Along the way, the band touches on key elements in Lacy’s vast discography: Rushes and Packet (from which the songs that set Akhmatova and Malina derive) with Irene Aebi and Frederic Rzewski, and the two-volume Futurities, nonet settings of Robert Creeley poems and arguably his finest single-author project.

As the sounds refract through the exquisite poem-lyrics that the music animates, Jean Derome & Somebody Special open their new collective work on the playful Jack’s Blues and the staggered The Smile and then we get the lushly dulcet The Cuckoo and the three-part Sands: the first part being the affecting beauty of Stand, then we get the joyfully vivacious Jump, the set culminating on the hauntingly ethereal Fall.

Along next is the rhythmically paced Love and Politics which is itself backed seamlessly by the jazzy blues vibe of I Heard the Indian Sage, the improvised feel to the layered brilliance of Morning Joy, the music rounding out on the robustly enigmatic As Usual, coming to a close on the artfully hazed Heaven.