Hector Zazou

Born of a French father and Spanish mother in pre-independence Algeria, Hector Zazou first recorded in the mid-'70s under the name ZNR, as one half of a duo with Joseph Racaille. This early work is light but engaging French chamber jazz, lyrical and quirky, with Zazou playing keyboards and violin. The music has long since lost any radical edge, and the sparse instrumentation gives most of the pieces more the sound of musical sketches than fully realized compositions, but in ZNR, Zazou begins to demonstrate his interest in unusual instrumental timbres and colors, as well as his...