Listening to Alain Mallet’s debut album, MUTT SLANG, is a multicultural trip set to music that takes one from the narrow cobblestone streets of a small French village to African jungles and the more refined streets of Boston’s Back Bay with several stops in between. For over 25 years, Mallet has been a successful pianist and composer traveling the world and taking a break from life on the road, and he is now an ensemble and piano professor at the Berklee College of Music.
MUTT SLANG, which will be available on June 1 on Amazon and iTunes, is Mallet’s first CD as the lead, and it very much reflects his life as an artist. “MUTT SLANG came from the idea that so much of our music is the product of a unique mix of seemingly unconnected influences, when, in reality, they emanate from the untethered spiritual expanse that we all tap into,” Mallet says in describing the concept behind this album. “It’s like an alternate consciousness which seems to supersede all other moral, racial religions and political prejudices, as well as geographical boundaries.”
But don’t let Mallet’s ‘alternate conscious’ description of the concept behind this album dissuade you from listening to this CD. While the album certainly has a multicultural influence, at its heart, MUTT SLANG is American jazz with an eclectic beat. As a touring musician, he’s been a sideman for Madeleine Peyroux, Phil Woods, Paul Simon and many others, and, you’ve heard his compositions recorded by jazz greats like Gary Burton, Dave Samuels, and Paquito D’Rivera. These influences have also shaped Mallet’s musically adventurous spirit.
To appreciate Mallet’s talent, you should probably also know that he came to music in a very unusual way. He’s from Andernos, a small French village not far from Bordeaux. And, due to a birth defect, he was paralyzed on his left side for the first year of his life. While the paralysis wasn’t permanent, it was very difficult for him to regain the use of his left arm. His parents loved jazz, and his dad was an amateur piano player, so it seemed natural to turn to the piano as therapy. As a boy, his heroes were Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner, and despite the difficulty with his left arm, by the time he was 16, he was a serious musician. In 1983, he left home to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and he has remained in the United States pursuing his career.
Mallet cites specific musical influences for this project including Miles Davis’ 1958 sessions, Jacques Brel, the Globe Unity Orchestra, Peter Gabriel, Elis Regina, Keith Jarrett’s American quartet, Stevie Wonder, Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto, and Salif Keita, an afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. There’s also an Israeli pop song that’s sung in Hebrew. So, it’s really not an exaggeration to tell you that this CD is an around-the-world trip that crosses multiple geographical and cultural borders. It also has a strong dose of musical adventure, anticipation and the excitement that makes for an interesting listening experience.
Mallet is joined on this musical journey by several of the top players you will know from other recordings. These include veteran percussionist Jamey Haddad (Dave Liebman, Simon Shaheen, Paul Simon), bassist Peter Slavov (Joe Lovano), and drummer Abraham Rounds (Meshell Ndegeocello, Seal). And, with his advantage as a professor at Berklee, he’s also added some of the top rising talents from his alma matta. You can read more about them on Mallet’s website and on the liner notes for the CD. The website also has samples from the album and an amazing collection of videos from Mallet’s other projects.
MUTT SLANG is a two-CD set; one is a standard, high-quality, stereo recording and one is engineered with additional audio channels for surround sound. Elliot Scheiner, the music producer, mixer and engineer who has received 25 Grammy nominations and 8 Grammy awards had the idea to make the second CD. We don’t have a surround sound system, so we can’t tell you the differences in the two CDs, but if you have a multimedia setup, you might enjoy having this option. We agree with Mallet, however, who said, “If someone of Elliot Scheiner’s stature has a suggestion, it probably behooves you to go along with it.”
The sound quality of the stereo recording is very good and so is the music. I enjoyed listening to the entire album all the way through in one sitting and was never tempted to skip to the next song. I highly recommend you give this debut album a chance and maybe expand your musical taste.
