{"product_id":"michel-portal_alors_2025_lba","title":"Alors","description":"Could Michel Portal from 1970 be the missing link between Eric Dolphy and Albert Ayler? After working alongside François Tusques to champion a \"made in France\" free jazz, here he is leading an international quintet where each member shines brilliantly: John Surman, Barre Phillips, Stu Martin, and Jean-Pierre Drouet. The quintet was given free rein to explore free-form in long ambient pieces to compose this album \"Alors!\" which leaves the listener with only one desire: to ask for more!Do we still need to introduce Michel Portal? A clarinetist destined for the classical and contemporary world after his time at the Conservatoire de Paris, he decided to try his hand at jazz with incandescent flair! After an initial experience with André Hodeir and Pierre Michelot, he shook up the codes with François Tusques (Free Jazz, in 1965) before founding the iconic Michel Portal Unit. It is this Portal from that era that \"Alors!\" offers us the opportunity to rediscover.\"There are periods of insolence,\" the musician declared, and the year 1970 was one of them. At the head of an impetuous international troupe, a quintet composed of John Surman (saxophones, bass clarinet), Barre Phillips (double bass), Stu Martin (drums), and Jean-Pierre Drouet (percussions), Portal moves from alto saxophone to clarinet in the compositions shared with his partners.From the very first notes, the group unleashes a true sonic explosion with \"OO Bam Ba Deep,\" hammered by the brass and percussion.Follows the fabulous free jazz of \"Yes, Oh Yes, You Wondrous Sun Kissed Maiden!\" and the fantastic deconstructed march of \"Ça Boom?,\" which shakes the musicians in all directions. The quintet, imagining that listeners would need to catch their breath, judiciously added: \"Billie the Kid\" and \"Undercurrent,\" wonderful moments of ambient mystery. Audacious from start to finish, cover included - the bird-man and his quintet brain drawn by Avoine -, the album is a fabulous object, to which the Futura label had given wings at the time. And for its reissue today, a single word suffices: the French translation of the title!","brand":"Michel Portal","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57307710816600,"sku":null,"price":20251121.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0898\/4943\/0360\/files\/3491570061329.jpg?v=1779009118","url":"https:\/\/vinyles.com\/en\/products\/michel-portal_alors_2025_lba","provider":"Vinyles.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}