actuellecd

Review

Noah Wane, Splendid E-Zine, January 22, 2001

Évidence is the Montréal trio of Jean Derome (alto sax), Pierre Tanguay (drums) and Pierre Cartier (electric bass). Regular readers of Splendid are sure to associate these names with many of the Ambiances magnétiques releases we’ve reviewed over the years. In most cases the music we’ve reviewed from guys like Derome or Tanguay has been of the highly experimental, free-form variety. With Live à la casa they move onto more well-known ground by performing the compositions of Thelonious Monk. Their effort is generally meritorious. Certainly the group plays tightly and with a certain liveliness, handling itself well enough on classics like Straight, No Chaser, Reflections and Ask Me Now. Derome’s alto sound is just a tad anemic and the rhythm section does seem a bit square, but these guys are well-rounded musicians and you can’t really fault them for not being specialists. I can’t really escape the feeling, however, that they aren’t real dyed-in-the-wool jazzmen, and Straight, No Chaser has been performed by every college and high school jazz combo in recorded history. I’m not saying that Évidence doesn’t have a right to play these unarguably great compositions or even that they don’t do it well. All I’m saying is that, barring brilliantly deep or novel performances, I’m not sure how many recorded interpretations of some of these tunes we really need.