Take This

Pianist/composer Jacky Terrasson makes his Impulse! label debut with Take This, a sparkling new disc that captures the quintessence of his multifaceted musical makeup, which often draws upon modern post-bop, pop, hip-hop, European classical, and African and Afro-Caribbean rhythms and melodies.On Take This, he retains American bassist Burniss Travis (Ambrose Akinmusire, Robert Glasper), who played on the previous disc, Gouache (Universal Jazz France, 2012) while recruiting new members – Cuban-born drummer Lukmil Perez (Tito Puente), Malian percussionist Adama Diarra (Dee Dee Bridgewater, Salif Keita, Tiken Jah Fakoly) and vocalist and Afro-French human beatbox virtuoso Sly Johnson (ex Saian Supa Crew, Eric Truffaz) – to form a hip cosmopolitan combo that represents jazz’s expansive global mindedness while still affirming its African-American roots.The disc also contains nine surprising covers that range from inventive takes on a handful of jazz standards – Bud Powell’s “Un Poco Loco,” Miles Davis and Bill Evans’ “Blue In Green” and Paul Desmond’s “Take Five”— a riveting piano-vocal duo rendition of the Beatles’ “Come Together,” an ebullient reading of Henri Salvador’s 1950 French-Caribbean hit, “Maladie D’Amour” and a jazz/hip-hop makeover of Gotye’s 2011 international pop hit, “Somebody That I Used to Know.”