Hal SingerFeaturing Art Taylor, Siegfried Kessler

"I get something out of listening to Coltrane, Shepp and Coleman, I'm really pleased that young players are trying to change things. If they go back the roots and come up with something new, that's fantastic." This comment was made bysaxophonist Hal Singer to G�rard Terron�s for the magazine Jazz Hot in 1968. Two years later Terron�s would issue Singer'salbum 'Blues And News' on his label Futura Records. Though born in 1919 Hal Singer claims, just like the precursors of free jazz, "to always be looking for something else". Whenhe started out he played in numerous swing bands, then worked in bop with Don Byas, Roy Eldridge or Red Allen, beforejoining Duke Ellington's band. In 1948, he recorded a successful single, 'Cornbread' under his own name, which allowed him to travel to the four corners of the earth with his own group. Then, in 1965, Hal Singer came to live in France: in Paris, he played at clubs like the Chat Qui P�che or Riverbop, in the studio, he multiplied his experiments and experience. Itwas one such session that gave us 'Blues And News': joined byJacques Bologn�si (trombone), Jean-Claude Andr� (guitar), Siegfried Kessler (keyboards and flute), Patrice Caratini (double bass), Art Taylor (drums) and Alain Charlery (percussion), the saxophonist himself goes "back to the roots", to also "come up with something new." Things kick off with 'It's My Thing,' a soul jazz number reminiscent of Cannonball Adderley or Lou Donaldson. After the pretty balled 'Lina,' comes 'Malcolm X,' a luminous homage which resists the storm whipped up by Kessler on piano. Getting back to swing, Singer makes music with his communicative 'joie de vivre' ('Du Bois,' 'Pour St�phanie') before signing off with a flamboyant blues dedicated to him by Kessler for the occasion: 'Blues For Hal.' But was another title possible?... 'Blues For All'!!