Chris Jennings’ 5 Ways Home – Boy, She’s the Dandy

We've been waiting a long time for this album of Paris based Canadian double bassist Chris Jennings, a great sideman, and we're not disappointed to have waited so long, for this album is an album of maturity. Chris has surrounded himself with exceptional musicians, some of them long-time accomplices, others more recent acquaintances, but all of whom join in his playing completely naturally. Everything is in place and finds its place on this album: Eric Schaefer's serene, powerful steadiness, Hayden Chisholm's strangely familiar or familiarly strange saxophone playing, Kalle Kalima's electrifying flying guitar, Patrick Goraguer's refined drumming (we're more used to hearing him play drums), Rachel Eckroth's lyrics and modulations and, of course, the woody softness of Chris's double bass. All this comes from afar and enters into dialogue in these dissonant, gentle and surprising harmonies. This is an album in which musicians take the time to listen to each other and to build energy, supported step by step by the double bass of this Canadian who climbs mountains, masterfully handling changes of tempo, mood and horizon, leaving us with an immense joy of living and listening.