Frère Jacques - Round About Offenbach

Multiply gifted reed player Gianluigi Trovesi (here on piccolo and alto clarinets) and accordionist Gianni Coscia have created some of ECM’s most fascinating jazz-classical crossovers, and Round about Offenbach may just be their crowning jewel. Taking the iconoclasm of the album’s namesake as a call to action, they combine the sacred and the heathen with meticulous abandon across a gallery of moods and influences. Between their arrangements of operatic gems and the smooth stylings of such mash-ups as “Tangoffenbach,” they show the value of taking humor seriously. Few have done it better.