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Reviews
“notre relation à ce qui nous entoure, nous motive, nous rend vivant, pour toujours, pour les temps qui changent, le temps d’une éternité, le temps d’un disque, unique et universel.” Alain Fleche, La Gazette Bleu
”Sand Underfoot is a top notch session … The undisputable stand-out track is “Sand Underfoot,” … It sums up all of this album’s delicateness, creativity and telepathic interaction … Sand Underfoot remains firmly anchored in jazz, if only by Jeannette’s deep understanding of jazz singing and Michel’s flexible free swing, so there is no need to be afraid.”
François Couture, All Music Guide
Pick of the Week: “Amidst a crowded room of experimental female jazz vocalists, Jeannette Lambert comes across as a refreshing alternative to the usual sound manipulators. Her style is more reminiscent of avant-psych-folk from the 1960s than any jazz vocalist; think of her as a cross between ESP-Disk folk, Fairport Convention, and Patty Waters. Her voice has a sing-song quality that buoys up even the compellingly dark musical atmospheres created here by Phillips, Bley, and Michel Lambert … This fascinating disc is also further proof of the vitality of Quebec’s jazz scene.”
Justin Glick, WNUR
Best Music of 2006: one of the top ten choices of music for 2006 by producer/host BoBBy HiLL, WPFW.
“Jeannette Lambert’s singing rarely recalls conventional jazz vocalists or for that matter free-improv singers: it’s more like conversation gently shaped into a sort of freeform folksong. There seems to be little compositional scaffolding on Sand Underfoot, but Lambert sings her lyrics as if teasing music out of the words themselves, phrase by phrase, discovering melodies that circle back on themselves the same way her poems often cyclically repeat a key phrase. … when she’s playing off other bandmembers the results are alert and refreshingly free of singer’s-improv cliché. It’s unusual to hear Paul Bley’s harmonically treacherous lyricism on a vocalist’s album, and he’s in fine form here, his abrupt sea-changes alternately complementing and challenging Lambert. Reunited here with bassist Barre Phillips for the first time since Sankt Gerold, he also strikes up a strong relationship with drummer Michel Lambert … the furious “Théo’s Pace,” Bley’s freest, most aggressive performance in some years… if the above description intrigues then do give it a try. Bley’s admirers will certainly find it an intriguing one-off.”
Nate Dorward, Cadence
“Sand Underfoot is a charming album from Canadian poet and jazz singer Jeannette Lambert. That it recalls three Canadian folk singers – Mary Margaret O’Hara and the McGarrigles – for its dreamy, sleep-walking quality is really a telling tribute. Featuring husband Michel on drums, the excellent Barre Phillips on bass and telling contributions from the ever remarkable Paul Bley on piano, its central theme is humankind’s tenuous relationship with nature, which is reflected both in the lyrics and the music. Both have a fragmentary quality, never quite becoming fixed in the landscape. Perhaps a bit like the beach in the lovely title track or the desert in ‘Desert Ride’ and ‘Beautiful Desert’, everything is in a state of flux. Songs are punctuated by improvised solos and duos from the musicians, who confirm our impermanence. ‘Theo’s Pace’ a lengthy improvisation from all four performers is a tour de force, while ‘Rim of Fire’’s four part suite suggests both isolation and companionship. Bley is a perfect choice here, while Michel Lambert’s Paul Motian-inspired drums are in constant movement. Phillips works particularly well with Lambert and Bley, the latter an old sparring partner. But it’s Jeannette Lambert who remains the focus of attention, even while leaving the stage to her co-performers. A jewel.”
Duncan Heining, Jazzwise, June 2006
Personal Taste, critic’s pick for June 2006
Neil Tesser, Jazziz
“An adventurous singer from Canada who is well worth knowing, Jeannette Lambert’s recent CD Sand Underfoot has pianist Paul Bley as a guest.”
Scott Yanow, Scott Yanow, Jazz Critic website
“I have given it a few good listens,which it deserves and I am impressed with its inventiveness and the artistic courage you have to be yourself and explore musical terrain that most of us are too chicken to do. Great work! Plus you are able to do more improvised, free jazz and not have it sound jarring becauseyour voice has an interesting timbre.”
Maureen Kennedy, jazz vocalist
“Sand Underfoot, the follow up to Jeannette Lambert’s first record she made with Barre Phillips and Michel Lambert (which I highly recommend if only for it’s completely unique mood and beautiful sound) and she has added Paul Bley on this one (good choice eh?!) This features more of her poetry and beautiful singing.”
Tim Posgate, Tim Posgate’s Canadian jazz life Blog
”Jeannette Lambert’s Sand Underfoot is free jazz in the best sense: music filled with complicated simplicity and dense with light. The elder-but-never-old masters Paul Bley and Barre Phillips meld seamlessly with the playfully serious energies of the younger Jeanette and Michel Lambert. The words and music here are part of an ancient tradition that is always new: the artist’s poetic call and response with the natural world … There is much that gleams on Jeannette Lambert’s beach.”
J. W. Jarvis, Customer review, CDBaby.com
“Lambert describes herself as a “jazz vocalist/poet” — I figure the poet came first, but she’s worked hard on the jazz end, and it pays off on one piece where she scats a bit… there is much of interest here”
Tom Hull, Jazz Prospecting