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The personal and artistic affinity between Christophe Monniot and Emil Spanyi has been one of the driving forces of the Paris-Budapest connection since the 90s. Like all great partnerships in jazz, this one has already taken many fascinating forms..

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One important ingredient in Zimpel's woodwind cornucopia is the unique timbres of the tárogató. Although French reedist Christophe Monniott doesn't play it on This is C'est La Vie, the newest CD by his Paris-Budapest band Ozone (BMC Records BMCCD163 www.bmcrecords.hu) adds sounds from the equally indigenous cimbalom or multi-string hammered board zither, played by Miklós Lukács to those created by fellow Hungarians, keyboardist Emil Spányi and percussionist Joe Quitzke. Ozone's CD is notable in its mixture of electronics and jazz standards such as Poinciana and Sophisticated Lady. With Monniott on low-pitched baritone saxophone the latter is treated uniquely as his smeary split tones and squeals brush up against reverberating arpeggios and string pops from Lukács. In contrast, Poinciana is backed into with keyboard splatters and signal-processed lines as the double-time treatment eventually encompasses Spányi's multi-fingered syncopated runs and Monniott's tongue vibrato on alto saxophone. It ends with vocoder modulations from the saxman and glissandi from the piano. More intriguingly, tracks such as the title tune welcome all influences. Here Monniott's high-pitched, corkscrew-like vibrations operate alongside Lukács' twanging harp-like arpeggios played andante and staccato, backed by jazz-grounded cymbal splashes and superfast piano comping.

     —Ken Waxman, WholeNote