Emmanuel Bex’s Open Gate Trio

Béla Bartók Plus Loin Music***

French Hammond organist Emmanuel Bex and his trio are joined by L'Orchestre des Pays de Savoie, directed by Frank Tortiller, for a set that alternates between Bex's own compositions and his arrangements of Béla Bartók's Mikrokosmosand Danses Roumaines. The great Hungarian composer's complex harmonic concepts and his use of unusual time signatures have hugely influenced the current generation of jazz musicians, but only rarely do improvisers have the temerity to venture into Bartók's tightly controlled orchestral world themselves. Bex and his trio are only intermittently successful, but it is nonetheless a startling and unusual recording that often sounds more like an avant-garde film score than a jazz album. But what is perhaps most astonishing is that, 60 years after Bartók death, and despite excellent contributions from Bex and saxophonist Francesco Bearzatti, his melodies sound the most fresh. See emmanuelbex.net.