I Dream of You Jumping

by François Couture I Dream of You Jumping is a live recording from the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. On May 21, 2000, legendary avant-garde guitarist Fred Frith, theatrical percussionist Jean-Pierre Drouet, and French new jazz clarinetist Louis Sclavis played an extended 48-minute improvisation, followed by a shorter encore. Their rock, world, and jazz backgrounds met with mixed results. Frith chose a delicate approach, with his electric guitar remaining below the average amount of decibels produced, and often adopting folkish stylings. Sclavis jumped from post-bop licks to East European scales and avant-garde bubblings. Drouet used mainly small objects, bells, and hand drums. He often sounds like he's playing above the improvisation and not taking a serious interest in it, an impression reinforced when he resorts to his voice. "There Are Great Stories, We Must Lift Them" offers nice moments, mostly in its first 15 and last five minutes (there is a delectable kind of flamenco dance happening at the end). The middle part finds Frith and Sclavis trying desperately to find something to cling to among Drouet's ramblings. On "Will Remain Always," Frith gets a brighter spotlight, but once again the improv does not soar very high. Not an essential item for either Frith or Sclavis fans, I Dream of You Jumping remains a honest, if not exciting, performance.