Philip Catherine + Christian Escoude + Didier Lockwood - Trio (FRA 1984)

None of these musicians really need any introduction though of course the cover would need an entire novel to justify its existence.  Well, some of us here remember those idiotically happy days back then when bright neon colours and silly behavior were everywhere.

The music is that light fusion typical of the eighties that some really detest, others not so much.  However, due to the fame of its performers, I thought it would be interesting to some.  Note that some of the tracks are really interesting and well-written, esp. to me the Escoude track on side b, "Eyes Don't Smile" is quite progressive.  I'll sample it below.  In fact he really turns out to be the star here, to me.  Catherine, on the other hand, despite his purebred pedigree, is quite the dog in this show, with relatively ordinary compositions.  But we could recognize his unique playing easily, all of us, with that sharp attack and those minor second passages that are so typical of his great masterpiece records.  Oddly enough he does the arranging on this record, when you wouldn't really expect these guys need such a function.

The other impressive track is Lockwood's Like an Angel punctuated with those classic minor second arpeggios that are such a hallmark of both P. Catherine and seventies guitar fusion:


Here is Escoude's  Eyes Don't Smile: