Label: Distrokid, 2021
Personnel - Mehdi Nabti: alto sax, nira, clave; Joy Anandasivam: electric guitar; Nicolas Lafortune: electric bass; Bertil Schulrabe: drums, derbouka, percussion.
The French-born, Canada-based alto saxophonist and composer Mehdi Nabti returns with Grooves à Mystères, a focused effort containing eight flowing groove-imbued selections that bridge diverse musical cultures and illustrate a very personal musical concept he called Afro-Berber continuum, the thread underneath all his projects. Fronting his quartet Prototypes, Nebti takes an extremely functional North Africa-meets-West approach that brims with modal forms and formidable rhythmic complexities.
The tone is set by the opener, “Antée” - aptly assembled with African percussion, a round bass groove with a funky feel, odd tempo, lenient jazz chords, and a beautiful, celestial melody that shapes into a sequence of fragmented lines during the sax improvisation. Articulation is never in question, even when the solos take a more modest role like in the case of guitarist Joy Anandasivam.
Propelled and illuminated by an infectious groove provided by the bassist Nicolas Lafortune and the percussionist Bertil Schulrabe, “Ayyur” feels very Eastern in sound, recalling the sonic cross-genre formulations of the saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, yet with not as much eloquence in the expression. The sumptuously breezy “Eon”, built over a 13-beat cycle, flows with a sub-Saharan incantation, making us breathe the air of different worlds with a spiritual sense of wonder rather than pressure, whereas “Esperanto” overflows with impromptu oratory, stepping ahead forcefully as it enters in a celebratory mode with accurate rhythmic moves and a decided folk comportment. In turn, “Mithra” makes a decent jazz-funk stab, stressing an array of staccato lines in the theme.
Navigating highly structured frameworks, the group achieves a fine balance between the effortlessly charming and the wryly intricate, and if the traditional Macedonian “So Maki Sum Se Rodila” expands its roots by growing world-fusion branches, then the closer, “Timgad”, remains hypnotically static in a 10/8 meter flow while Nabti plays the nira (Moroccan flute) with light-footed ritualistic gestures.
As a mosaic of eclectic influences, the music on this album can be rewardingly illuminating, remembering us that the beauty of jazz also relies on its ability to be open and merge with other styles.
Grade A-
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Antée ► 03 - Eon ► 05 - Mithra