"Guy's septet display ever-increasing confidence and ease in each other's company. The backing from the London Metropolitan Orchestra provides the scenery in front of which his players can act, and what a vivid score he has written for them. "The Guy", performed by Olivier Temime on tenor saxophone, is so memorable a tune that it should become a standard, a melody penned with Cary Grant in mind and to which Temime brought the laid-back swagger of Dexter Gordon, a big-boned disregard for the metre and a big-toned masculinity. The Lauren Bacall-inspired "The Girl", played by Rosario Giuliani on alto, is a vision of a woman who's dressed for the night at any time of day, serpentine, seductive, dangerous and irresistible. All excelled, lifted by Guy's superb material, with the rhythm section coming into their own in "The Chase" featuring a breathtaking solo by drummer Sebastian de Krom, and the leader himself demonstrating his rich trumpet sound in "The Dream""

 

- THE INDEPENDANT, 2003-