If you ever need to prove to a sceptic that contemporary jazz is alive, well and immensely diverse, Kevin LeGendre’s Now’s the Time compilations are great places to start. The first two spanned the world, and though the third takes all its 13 tracks from France, the range of music is just as broad. The Orchestre National de Jazz opens by sounding as airborne as the Maria Schneider band but with a techno and minimalist-piano undertow; pianist Benoît Delbecq’s Yompa has a deliciously springy African bounce; Stéphane Kerecki’s dark, rugged Palabre has US saxist Tony Malaby in sinewy shape on soprano; and the Donkey Monkey duo’s Blues Nippon is a wild mix of eerie eastern vocal chanting and explosive improv. There’s plenty of graceful lyricism too, including saxist Lionel Belmondo’s 3+2+3, vibraphonist Pascal Schumacher’s haunting one-minute tonepoem, and a breezy bossa nova vocal for Sofia Ribeiro with bassist Marc Demuth. It’s full of surprising delights.
