SOPHIA DOMANCICH

'RÊVE DE SINGE' CD (Gimini Music)

Michael Draine (© 2003 Michael Draine)

It's a mystery to me why American jazz bandleaders routinely complain how hard it is to find good backing musicians in France, considering the long list of distinguished players who have moved in the orbit of Christian Vander. On 'Rêve de Singe', pianist Sophia Domancich, formerly of the Zeuhl group Anaïd, teams with five-string bassist Paul Rogers and drummer Tony Levin for a 76 minute set of eloquent, even-tempered acoustic jazz recorded live to digital two-track. Elegant in presentation and lyrical in tone, 'Rêve de Singe' is quite accessible and engaging, even to an admittedly jazz-ignorant listener such as myself. Domancich composed seven of the disc's eight tracks, with Rogers running the gamut of outré effects that can be produced on string bass on his sole composition, 'Mon Rêve Familiar'. Taken on its own terms, 'Rêve de Singe' is a beautiful album, but the Domancich Trio's adherence to a traditional jazz idiom places them only at the periphery of the tastes of most Magmaphiles.