[Harp-L] Review of Olivier Ker Ourio's Somminker

["Planet Harmonica" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have just posted a review of Olivier Ker Ourio's Somminker on my weblog at 
http://harmonica.typepad.com. Here's the first few paragraphs : 

Olivier Ker-Ourio is one of a new generation of chromatic harmonica players 
who have started to mark the European Jazz scene of their imprint in the 
last few years. Of his three previous albums, two are unashamedly jazz 
(Central Park Nord and A Ride with the Wind) and one lies between jazz and 
world music (Oté l'Ancêtre). The latter was the first record in which 
Olivier explored his Reunion Island roots, and incidentally is also my 
favourite of the three. Since his latest release Sominnker is rather in the 
same vein, it won?t come as a surprise that I liked it a lot. 

Actually, Sominnker isn't an Olivier Ker Ourio record so much as a 
collaboration between Olivier and his habitual band (Gildas Boclé? on 
double-bass, Pierre de Bethmann on piano and Franck Agulhon on drums) and 
maloya singer Danyel Waro. The record constitutes of about 2/3 vocal tracks 
sung in creole, the rest being instrumentals. 

The thing that struck me upon first listening to this record is the 
cohesiveness of the ensemble. Of course, the jazz arrangements alter the 
original maloya sound some, but without betraying its essence, in particular 
its rhythmic core. In other words, it doesn't sound like collaboration 
records often do, ie. artists watering down their identity: it sounds like 
these guys have been playing together forever. The sleeve notes mention the 
existence of a documentary on this recording session, and I hope I get to 
see it one day, because it's pretty obvious listening to the music that 
there has been a true cultural exchange going on...