The Muffins - Loveletter #1 (2001)

A word of love. A business card. A sign, finally, a sign! The Muffins are back, and this foreword, which precedes by a year the long-awaited comeback album, "Bandwith", makes us smile, without forcing, in such a troubled period. It is good to hear the energy, the enthusiasm, the vigor, the ardor, the passion which these fifties are animated. However, if there is one thing that the music lover learns to be wary of, it is the late reunions of old bands from the golden age, often synonymous with a barely concealed pecuniary need. . No. This return is greatly justified. In fact, it's as if they had never left us, the Muffins. Which group ! What a blessing! In half an hour and nine titles, "Loveletter#1" sums up everything we already knew about this exceptional group; eight tracks in concert including two in Rome and four from their breathtaking performance at the Knitting Factory in New York in 1998. Two tracks ("These Castle Children" and "Under Dali's Wing") from the oblique and unjustly forgotten "<185> ", picks up business exactly where we left off, as if time had no hold on them, an excerpt from their piece de resistance, "Captain Boomerang", at the end and no less than four improvisations, including two titles, "Walking the Duck" and "Sam's Room" will make their way to "Bandwith". On "But Not for Others", from the studio sessions of the next album, as for most of the titles presented here, the emphasis is on the improvised aspect, a logical continuation of the approach undertaken by the Muffins before a forced stop in the early eighties. We will also point out an expeditious and very respectful version of the "Nan True's Hole" from the second Matching Mole, to make it clear where they come from to all those who are still in their first contact with their music. Always so flamboyant, lyrical, adventurous, generous, these few titles bode very well for the future and reassure us about a possible poor form of these four outstanding musicians. We are therefore relieved. Even if we are choosy and stamping with impatience at the announcement of the release of their new opus - almost twenty years after "<185>"! - we are also assured of the triumphant return of the tenors of the Canterburian and avant-garde jazz scene from the United States.