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Artist: George Brown
Album: Jazz in Paris
Genre: Swing, Jazz-Funk
Label: Astana Music
Released: 2025
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
01. Lisa (5:52)
02. What I Love About You (3:48)
03. Juliette (3:13)
04. MDD (3:01)
05. Francess (4:04)
06. Daddy Jazz Bow (5:17)
07. Addicted to the Hustle (3:06)
08. West End Avenue (4:42)
09. The Kat (5:07)
10. Jardin de Lapin (3:55)
11. In the Land of Allah - In the Land of God (9:34)
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The late George Brown was the drummer with the jazz-influenced Kool and the Gang, and also one of the band’s main songwriters, contributing to ‘Celebration’ among other joyous and life-affirming disco bangers. He recorded this album at home with a vast array of musicians during the pandemic lockdown, and managed to complete most of it before he passed away in 2023. All but two of the tracks here are his own compositions.
Jazz in Paris, like all the best music, it is primarily a work of the imagination. Brown’s aim was to conjure up the atmosphere of the smoky late 1950s jazz clubs he had known in his youth, particularly in Paris – hence the title and the retro sleeve art.
What immediately shines through is the warmth. There’s a pleasingly loose, baggy feel to these tracks, like slipping into your sloppiest bathrobe at the end of an exhausting day.
The lazy slow swing of ‘Lisa’ sets the tone immediately, seasoned by the late-night parping of Louis Van Taylor’s tenor and Andrea Lisa’s ever-so-cool guitar. At first, I thought the vocalist on the gently trucking ‘What I Love About You’ was Carmen Lundy, but it’s actually Jane Eugene (remember ‘Hangin’ on a String’ by Loose Ends? - that was her). ‘MDD’ evokes funky late-period Miles, hence the initials. Although fronted by just Mike Cordone on trumpet and the gloriously-named Philip Whack on tenor, it presages the big fat horn sections to follow on ‘Daddy Jazz Bow’ and ‘In the Land of Allah - In the Land of God’. Sublime from start to finish.
Review by Peter Jones