¿Que Vola?

¿Que Vola? (‘What's Up?’ – a greeting commonly used by Cubans) opens traditionally with a grand salutation to the Santería god, Changó, consisting of gradually mutating batá loops, climbing in intensity and speed underneath horn lines stretched languidly across the mix.

French trombonist Fidel Fourneyron travelled to Cuba in 2012 to expand his musical knowledge, but left with the idea of creating a band from a French jazz septet and a trio of Cuban percussionists – Barbaro Crespo Richard aka ‘Barbarito’, Ramon Tamayo Martinez and Adonis Panter Calderon – replacing voices with brass. The resulting album has hallmarks of jazz, batá and timba.

‘Nganga’ is formed over jarring jazz harmony and reality-warping rhythmic permutations of batá figures that would make Irakere proud. But (and there is a definitely a ‘but’) ¿Que Vola? is stylistically quite safe, and doesn't quite reach the dizzy heights of what Chucho Valdés, for instance, has done with jazz batá fusion.

In the title-track it sometimes feels that the ensembles aren't entirely pulling together in the same direction – the horn arrangements aren't executed with quite enough rhythmic fervour, especially when heard next to formidable and merciless batá clip-clop. Happily, the drum kit acts as a reassuring bridge between two sound worlds and the Frenchmen respectfully drop out when the batá players really start to go for it.

¿Que Vola? is a successful experiment by a non-Cuban – but an experiment is exactly what it feels like. However, overall it's a solid album that continues to reward on repeated listening.