Excellent new jazz inspirations Stéphane Spira – NEW PLAYGROUND: Stéphane’s marvelous soprano saxophone artistry is wonderfully complimented by Joshua Richman on piano & Fender Rhodes; Steve Wood playing bass and Jimmy Macbride’s superb drums… to watch them in action, catch their trailer video for the album…
…of course, I would have liked to have seen that video in “live” mode (maybe on the next album); but, if you SUBSCRIBE to Stéphane’s YouTube channel, he has lots of other live performances captured there.
What I noticed when listening through the album the first time is the absolute precision of the recording… you’ll hear what I mean (right away) when you listen to tunes like the beautiful “New York Windows“… not only is the song ultra-hip & swingin’, but every single NOTE is captured in the recording!
Stéphane is well-traveled, having started in Paris, then on to Saudi Arabia, back to Paris and now residing in NYC… it was amazing as I read that he is self-taught… as you listen to his performance on the title track, “New Playground“, you’ll find that as hard to believe as I did… he’s pure professional, through & through… I have no doubt that jazz DJ’s across the globe are going to pick up this tune, and you’ll hear it in rotations for a long time to come.
Of the eight all-original tunes by Stéphane, it was easy to choose my personal favorite… the closer, “Solid Wood“, features a super slinky Fender Rhodes intro from Joshua, that segues oh-so-nicely into one of the tastiest soprano sax compositions you’ve ever heard… a SUPERB piece of jazz!
I give Stéphane and his players a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, with an “EQ” (energy quotient) rating of 4.99 for this excellent jazz adventure… learn more about Stéphane by reading his BIO. Rotcod Zzaj
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