Louiss Lubat, Engel Group "Live at montreux 72" 1972 French Jazz Funk
Great live session by group formed by drummer Bernard Lubat, organist Eddy Louiss, guitarist Claude Engel and drummer Marc Bertaux. Inside this luxury rounded cornered laminated picture sleeve, we have an incredible jazz funk 4 long tracks recording. I especially do love the deep psych "5th of July, Dulong street" with aggressive organ play by Louiss, over superfunky rhythm section : Mad drumming and heavy electric bass ... The whole album is a bomb..
A short lived but shit-hot jazz rock unit, this trio have quite the auspicious pedigree. Drummer Bernard Lubat's been a longtime fixture on the French jazz scene, whose tangential ties to the zeuhl school (manifest here via early Magma guitarist Claude Engel's involvement) are also evidenced on both the Laurent Petitgirard and Henri Gougaud LP's that I've posted on MS previously. Former Omega Plus acid rock vet Engel was a founding member of Magma and is prominently featured on both their first album and their amazing Univeria Zekt project and would go on to play in Troc and participate in Jean-Claude Vannier's L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches, while keyboardist Eddy Louiss was a an old hand in the jazz world, working as a former sideman to Stan Getz and Kenny Clarke, though perhaps most significantly in the Humair/Louiss/Ponty trio. The magic engendered by these three is palpable; the scope of this live session ranging from the furiously charged to the vaporously abstract. Not to be missed..
Having already played together on Bernard Lubat's ‚Mad Ducks' LP, the dynamic french trio Lubat (drums, percussion, piano), hammond master Eddy Louiss and guitarist Claude Engel joined in again on the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1972 laying down a magical live session that has been brought to vinyl by the highly collectable Pierre Cardin label. accompanied by Marc Bertaux on electric bass, the group creates an intense Jazz Groove atmosphere, funking and jamming the ultracool French way. tracks like ‘Les Aventures De Pinpin Au Togo' and ‘Live In A Magic Forest' represent French Live Jazz Funk at its best and yet more another example for the amazing music that has been produced by the famous Designer's label. On ‘5th Of July Dulong Street', an extended, midtempo Jazz Rock workout, hammond and e-guitar groove along in great improvisional play over pounding drumbeats and a funky bass line before fading out in a fuzzed-out wah-wah / drum jam. big surprise, it turns out to be ‘Belle Gueuse', a composition that was originally studio released on Claude Engel's Telemusic Library ‘99% Pop'. showing Mr. Lubat in cool glasses behind drums on front and back sleeve, the Montreux album comes along in the usual stylish gimmick cover with rounded edges. highly recommended!..
Drums, Percussion, Piano, Electric Piano – Bernard Lubat
Electric Bass – Marc Bertaux
Electric Guitar – Claude Engel
Organ, Electric Piano – Eddy Louiss