"OUR DELIGHT" - CADENCE

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Expatriate and senior citizen Gourley, a long-time fixture on the Paris Jazz scene, is a driving acoustical guitar player. He propels a Franch trio/quartet on with verve and also tries his hand at singing on five of the songs. Gourley's playing style is melodic yet forceful. He plays "in the tradition" and includes several less-recorded standards on this date, yet he has a flair about him that stamps the tunes as his own material.

The group opens with the classic Tadd Dameron title tune. Using the trio format with bass and drums, several choruses of the song. Drummer Combelle is particularly motivating and the three seem to have a bal playing; Gourley uses the trioconfiguration on eight of the pieces, and the same cohesion is evident throughout. Thry are also very adept at playing ballads and give a particularly poignant performance on Johnny Mandel's "Never I told you".
Gourley's singing is unique. He has a deep, blues-tinged voice with a solft approach, and he has a knack for phrasing that personalizes the songs.While not a balladeer in the true sense of the word, his voice is the type that grows on you. Interestingly, also player Villéger appears only on three songs where Gourley sings. His presence ius for accompagniment as he weaves in and out of the vocal parts and gets short solo space between choruses.
Three of the tuynes were composed bu Gourley. His upbeat Latin piece "North american samba" is a good showcase for the trio to stretych out and also play some call-and-response games. "Pépée's dance" is another of his upbeat tunes where the players again appear to be having fun. The bluesy "Pass it on" features lyrics as well as music by Gourley. The session-ending song is a solo guitar/vocal rendition of the beautiful standard "By mysekif" which Gourley plays at a semi-fast tempo. By this time, you are feeling very confortable with his throaty voice. But it is the guitar playing of Gourley that would make you buy this CD. It is delightful in its straight-ahead approach and one that should make you smile as you listen.

Franck Rubolino