Les Hommes Armés

For all its ingenuities, this is just a degree less welcoming and appealing than its predecessor.  Much of it revolves around the ancient European melody of “L’Homme Armé”, out of which came pieces by numerous composers (and Trovesi makes direct reference to the Kyrie from Dufay’s Mass on the theme at one point).  Five tunes – “Tango”, “Tengo”, “Tingo”, “Tongo” and “T’Ungo” – are used to interlude the big pieces, which are themselves broken up into diverse fragments; and then there’s a crackpot version of “Mood Indigo” and a tribute to Eric Dolphy, based on a reharmonization of “Miss Ann”.