DAME and digital distributor IODA team up and offer in mp3 a first batch of nearly 50 discs. Rush to your favorite digital retailer (iTunes, emusic…) to find titles from Ambiances Magnétiques, Malasartes musique, Collection QB, and Monsieur Fauteux, m’entendez-vous?.

It takes bravery to take on the music of late composer/soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. Musicians must study his syntax, melodic contours and rhythmic nooks and crannies if they hope to gain even a tenuous foothold in this most daunting landscape. And The Rent, a fearless five-some, do more than just a quick touristic jaunt through of Lacy’s œuvre; they damn well inhabit the stuff. From the opening strains of Prospectus, one of the most familiar of the composer’s pieces, the group rip it up, with vocalist Susanna Hood leading the charge. Hood makes much of Jack’s Blues, with lyrics by Robert Creeley. Not surprisingly, The Rent play The Rent with feeling, with saxist Kyle Brenders digging deep for a multi-directional solo and trombonist Scott Thomson contributing a gutsy, full-toned “rebuttal.” Exceptional are drummer Nick Fraser and bassist Wes Neal, who keep the highly intellectual material solidly grounded. The Rent can feel that their time and dedication to Lacy’s music have been well invested.

Malasartes (one of the labels under DAME’s umbrella) just released its most accessible (ie less “actuel”) record to date: Primero by singer Irem Bekter. Eleven songs taken from Argentina’s traditional folk repertoire. I’m told these are modernized and cross-bred re-readings, but my poor knowledge of (and little interest in) this field makes me here nothing more than a pretty, surprise-less world music production.

Jean Derome (sax), Normand Guilbeault (bass) and Pierre Tanguay (drums) are back with a new studio album consisting of a blend of originals (by Derome) and standards (by Ellington, Kirk, Dolphy, Strayhorn and Mengelberg). This project is where Derome invests his melodicism the most, which makes Danse à l’Anvers a listener-friendly, approachable and seductive record, for any jazz fan with a slightly open-minded attitude. Derome’s compositions are well chiseled, especially Half-Way House and the title track. Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s Rip, Rig and Panic is marvelously frantic, and Mengelberg’s Poor Wheel carefully confused.

Trois nouvelles écrites par Franz Kafka, les trois dernières pour être exact, les déchirements sonores du saxophoniste britannique Evan Parker, réputé pour être un des meilleurs improvisateurs de la planète Terre, un nouvel album en trio qui s’avère la contradiction de la petite œuvre et un dénominateur commun tout en chair: Jean Derome, saxophoniste, compositeur, artiste qui mérite le triple AAA de Moody’s et compagnie.