Lézard Vert
Babani Records (41 mins)
Do you ever get the feeling that you’ve put on the wrong album?
Lézard Vert is considered a foundational album in the field of electric maloya – an updated version of the revolutionary music from La Réunion. Originally released in 1983, it brought together four pioneers of the island’s electric sound, led by guitarist and flute player Zoun. And yet, it would be difficult to locate this music as from the Indian Ocean from ear alone. Its connection to maloya is evident only in the very subtlest ways, and as for ‘electric’… well, this album appears to be entirely acoustic. The music here sounds much closer to an instrumental mix of jazz-rock and folk baroque, with influences from flamenco and Indian music, than one deeply rooted in a Réunionese style.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course. The shame is that it hasn’t even aged that well. The performances themselves are fine – Zoun’s lyrical acoustic guitar is particularly pleasant – but the blend of styles does not feel exactly ground-breaking or even exemplary, even for its time. This remastered reissue does a good job of bringing the older recording back to life, and if you like acoustic guitar-based folky jazz, you’ll probably enjoy it. But its connections to electric maloya are perhaps more opaque than expected.