Africa Brass Revisited

At the helm of an orchestra dominated largely by brass instruments, drawing its material from the blues, folk music, spirituals, and songs associated with slavery, Coltrane performed a series of compositions arranged by Eric Dolphy, which referenced the ancestral continent—Africa—and, beyond that, echoed the African American experience as a whole. Nearly half a century later, Christophe Dal Sasso, recognized as one of France’s most talented arrangers, has returned to this iconic repertoire, through which he restores, at the helm of an inspired and spirited big band, all its spiritual power, remaining faithful to the universal scope of the humanist message that John Coltrane had placed at the heart of his music.