Malo Mazurié • Taking The Plunge

I have read praise for cornetist and trumpet player Malo Mazurié for years and have enjoyed listening deeply for him in several groups where he was a member. These were groups playing artistic traditional jazz and “Chamber Jazz,” a term sounding much more caged than it should to describe what, at least on these albums, is an intentional climbing up the walls while staying within the form. He is featured on albums that should be carefully considered for any best of list of classic jazz recorded in the last decade; Attila Korb and his Rollini Project’s Tap Room Swing, David Lukács Dream City, the albums from Three Blind Mice, several with Michel Pastre, Félix Hunot & The Jazz Musketeers’ self-titled album, and Jerome Etcheberry’s two Satchmocracy albums. All of these feature superb playing made richer by the presence of Malo Mazurié, and feature artists you are unlikely to hear live without travel plans for the Whitley Bay Jazz Festival in the UK. Taking the Plunge is my chance, and yours, to meet the man directly as not just lead but on a name title. While he is part of a quartet here including Noé Huchard on piano, Raphaël Dever on bass, and David Grebil on drums, this is not listed as the “Malo Mazurié Quartet,” but under his name alone, his first time out as lead, and I will take that to mean the expression here is his. He pulls an awful lot out of that q