AAJ Rediscovery: Trio Sud, Young and Fine

[jkelman]

It's hard to believe that a guitarist as fine as France's Sylvain Luc has been so overlooked by supposedly comprehensive music sites like All Music Guide—especially with albums like today's Rediscovery, Young and Fine, featuring his Trio Sud group, out in the world. While you can find Luc at AMG, coverage of his small but significant discography is diminutive, and that's a shame, because Luc may well be one of the finest guitarists you've never heard...and Young and Fine one of the best jazz guitar trio albums that's been largely overlooked outside of his native country.

With bassist Jean-Marc Jafet—who also contributed four of Young and Fine's thirteen tracks—laying down some thick, muscular grooves on his fretless electric and Italian drummer Andrea Ceccarelli providing fluidly responsive rhythmic support, the album may be largely a guitarist's album...but the fact is Young and Fine is truly a trio recording that wouldn't be the same, were any of its members replaced. The group's chemistry is particularly abundant on this, its third and final release following 2000's Sud and 2001's Trio Sud—all three albums on the now sadly defunct Dreyfus Jazz imprint—and it is the trio's best recording on a number of fronts.

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