Barney Wilen feat. Alain Jean-Marie - Montréal Duets (Live) (2020)

Barney Wilen's preferred piano partner for much of his later career was the Martinique-born Alain Jean-Marie. He appears on both La Note Bleue and Wild Dogs of the Ruwenzori, but the duo's Montréal appearance in 1993 is a nice way to study their chemistry at some length. This live recording includes previously unissued tracks from the July 4, 1993 International De Jazz De Montreal, Church of the Cesu.

The alchemy of a duo cannot be decreed. It can be verified by the heat of this exchange. The Montreal concert is living proof. With these two musicians, jazz is not a matter of tempo or repertoire, of structures or the number of notes played in each bar. It is above all a matter of breathing, of the punctuation of each phrase, of the courtesy toward silence, a matter of music itself.

Wilen's preferred piano partner, for much of his later career, was the Martinique-born Alain Jean-Marie. He appears on both La Note Bleue and Wild Dogs Of The Ruwenzori, but the duo's Montreal appearance in 1993 is a nice way to study their chemistry at some length.