found Here on the blog of David Koperhant TSF, James Connolly singled out among the 5 French record this year.
# 4 Handbook Marchès - James Connolly (Abrasive Records)
2009, the year or bassists took power? Without going that far, it is noted the output of the first two discs sidemen became famous leaders: Diego Imbert and Manuel Marches. This gives us a project with James Connolly who surprisingly has its roots not in Africa or even the Caribbean or South America, the usual objects of fantasies jazzy, but ... In Ireland!
From Jazz to country pubs, Guinness pressure, the Irish Stew and the Tin Whistle? Yes, but it's more complicated than that! James Connolly, the hero of the disc is sort of big-character-bearded-who-in-imposed, and whose portrait in black and white adorns some history books. In almost 50 years of existence, James Connolly has traveled extensively, his native Scotland in the United States via Ireland, land of his heart. Especially, it has been a staunch defender of Marxism, a politician and a newspaper man engaged in the struggle for Irish independence. At the announcement of the partition thereof, it will sound the revolt before being executed by the British in 1916. Story not found that dotted the album, plus a hello admiring a job (we could have imagined) on the Irish repertoire: Non, ce ne sera pas Manu Marchès reprend U2 & The Dubliners, mais plutôt une figuration de ce qu’aurait pu être la musique d’un Coltrane ou d’un Archie Shepp, s’ils avaient posé leurs valises un jour à Dublin. Entre hard-bop et soul-jazz, boogaloo et bossa, le groupe de Manuel Marchès fait des merveilles (Julien Charlet, batterie, Maxime Fougères, guitare & Ricardo Izquierdo, sax), tout comme Sandra N’Kake qui pose sa voix sur le thème titre très habité. Ajoutez à cela un son clair et une production délicate: ça frôle le 20/20!
