Traditional jazz can be played well and enjoyed in any instrumental combination from soloist to symphony, even a guitar and clarinet duet can produce a great early jazz sound if that's all the gig will allow. There is a tendency for groupings of less than five to lose their energy and come across as conservatory music, but certain instrumental pairings are better suited to rise above and produce a sound as complete as any large band.
In a review of a ragtime album a while back I described my love of the piano percussion combination. In a ragtime setting it provides that little extra something to excite audiences not knowledgeable enough to appreciate the nuances of piano by itself. In a jazz settings, as Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller both knew, it can convince the audience the pianist has an orchestra hidden in that thing à la Paul Whiteman's film King of Jazz.
Guillaume Nouaux is one of Europe's leading jazz drummers and he's found a way in recent albums to display his full abilities. His last album, Guillaume Nouaux & the Clarinet Kings, was a double disc that collected eleven top clarinetists in a clarinet-piano-drums trio setting. His new release, Guillaume Nouaux & the Stride Piano Kings, gathers seven stride piano masters for two tracks each in a duo setting.
The pianists are Rossano Sportiello, Bernd Lhotzky, Louis Mazetier, Chris Hopkins, Alain Barrab
