Port Said Street

Port Sa�d Street is perhaps more accessible but no less consequential as it offers a kind of jazz journey by two virtuoso string players. Jonas Tauber is the cellist - he is known primarily as a bassist but has realized a lifelong dream "to play cello in this way" - and he deftly plays rhythmic complement to guitar explorations and presents solo turns both bowed and plucked. The tunes are a mix of jazz standards and guitarist Francis Coletta's originals. The two lightly bounce through Horace Silver 's "Nica's Dream" with Tauber playing the theme pizzicato. It's a spritely performance that's aided by the intimacy of the recorded sound. There's also a heartfelt "Body and Soul", with Tauber bowing and running variations on the famous theme and then Coletta sweetly picking a lovely solo. Coletta's originals are rich in jazz vocabulary while they seem a kind of musical travelogue to let us know that he and Tauber share experience and vision. The title track, named for a street in Marseilles, is a musical thoroughfare for two simpatico musicians to begin a soulful and most engaging journey.