Yes, I finally spent some time digging into the first fresh new Tete in quite a few years.
Very enjoyable disc, provided you like Tete, with his pros and his cons.
His amazing technique is displayed throughout the whole disc, with his astounding freshness of touch and phrasing, his ease and naturalness to play the blues, and quite a few very original ideas and surprising turns here and there.
But, at that point of time, he hadn’t departed yet from his baroque tendency, with too much ornaments and certain repetitiveness throughout his longer solos. That flaw would disappear in his later years.
I am very happy with the selection of tunes and the original rhythmic approach to a few of them. Particularly, Tete’s version of his own ‘Jo Vull Que M’Acariciis’ is one of the best I can bring to my mind.
And the trio works out as a hand in glove: Reggie and Alvin do a superb work.
Overall, 4 out of 5 stars for me!
(side note: yes, I would never rate any Tete disc below 3 stars)