"Paris has long been a mecca for jazz and the jazz artist. And French guitarist-composer Jean-Philippe Grégoire’s debut album for Big Round Records, Sounds From the Delta, is testimony to the continuing dynamism of the Parisian jazz scene. It is an album with a distinctive sound, drawing inspiration from genres as diverse as blues and classical.

Working with a quartet featuring saxophonist Baptiste Herbin, bassist Martin Guimbellot, and drummer Nicolas Charlier,  Grégoire has put together a 10-track program focusing, with two interesting exceptions, on his own original compositions. It was recorded at Studio Les Egreffins in Videlles, France on May 21, 2012, a good year for the composer, since it was also in 2012 that he was awarded a scholarship to Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music. Listening to this music from that period, it was a scholarship clearly well deserved.

The foursome opens with a hard driving tune called “No Te Preocupes,” before moving into the album’s title song, a piece that is almost a melodic variation on the iconic “Goodnight Ladies.” “Histology” is a short bop piece with Herbin showing his mettle. They slow down for a noir sounding “Azer-Tyu-lop.” (...).

“One for Mr. K” has Laurent Fikelson guesting on piano, and a lot of fine solo work from the front line. Jean-Charles Richard joins them on the soprano sax for a kind of spacey “Time Crunch.” “Unresolved” follows with an even more other worldly sound. It seems to show a whole other side to the composer. “Vittorio (R. I. P.),” as the title suggests, is a dirge-like lament.

The set concludes with Grégoire’s arrangements of Debussy’s “Claire de Lune,” a compelling piece of work, and “Just Friends,” the Klenner and Lewis standard.

Dividing his time now between Boston, New York, and France, Jean-Philippe Grégoire is a name you’ll want to remember."

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