It was the Neanderthals who imagined a soundmaking miracle hiding in a cave bear’s leg bone and carved it into the oldest known musical instrument. Should any of them happen to drop by 50,000 years later, the anthemic flute-funk of the modern instrument’s current pop renaissance would blow their minds. But some of their invention’s oldest virtues might nonetheless be reassuringly familiar – soft-blown tones like sighs or whispers, evocations of birdsong or rainforest chatter. In the startling flute sound of the Paris-raised, Franco-Syrian improviser and composer Naïssam Jalal, its oldest virtues and wildest modern manifestations become one.
The flute came into its own as a solo jazz instrument through such pioneers as Yusef Lateef, Herbie Mann and Rahsaan Roland Kirk in the 1950s and 60s, broadminded improvising virtuosi who drew on ancient and modern techniques from cultures all over the globe. Jalal is a comparable 21st-century visionary, a remarkable artist who draws on Arabic, African, classical and jazz techniques, hip-hop and more. She was hospitalised when she imagined the cinematic Healing Rituals, an album later realised with subtly skilful partners Clément Petit on cello, Claude Tchamitchian on bass, and Zaza Desiderio on drums.
Here, Jalal salutes the inspirations from the natural world that helped her back to health. Rituel du Vent is a standout, with a hooting, twisting melody with Petit’s cello swerving around it, building to a thrilling flute improvisation segueing pure tones and wild, exhortatory sounds. Rituel de la Rivière’s tranquil theme is shared by Jalal and Petit with a water-on-rocks hand-drum murmur, Rituel de la Forêt builds from eerie vocal and birdlike sounds to a thundering percussion climax, Rituel de la Lune from a percussive bass intro to a dizzying Jalal improv crescendo of headlong flute runs and semi-vocalised whoops. Healing Rituals already feels like a cert for the end-of-year hitlists.
Also out this month
The long rapport between unique American vocalist Gretchen Parlato and frequent Herbie Hancock guitar partner Lionel Loueke illuminates the alluring Lean In (Edition). Loueke’s Benin roots on the joyously buoyant Akwê, Parlato’s delicately confiding title track, some bossa nova, and an audacious cover of Foo Fighters’ Walking After You all rub shoulders on the tracklist. The Jazz Doctors – Intensive Care: Prescriptions Filled (Cadillac) is a welcome return for Cadillac Music’s long-absent 1983/4 London recording of jazz classics (including Ornette Coleman’s haunting Lonely Woman) and originals by a rugged African American free-jazz sextet featuring improv violin innovator Billy Bang and the unique slithery-to-staccato sound of saxophonist Frank Lowe. And saxist Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry, with cross-genre piano original Marilyn Crispell and sensitive percussionist Carmen Castaldi, combine three-way jazz spontaneity with 12-tone serial forms and Lovano’s tenor-ballad lyricism on Trio Tapestry – Our Daily Bread (ECM).