Butterfly Island – Fabiano Orchestra, 1980

Butterfly Island is the Fabiano Orchestra‘s landmark album. Guadeloupean drummer Jean-François Fabiano brings together two groups, one American, the other West Indian, for this album, which delves into jazz fusion, with accents of gwoka, reggae, funk… It’s one of the opportunities to find master Vélo on the ka, assisted by Michel Halley and Christian Mathurin. A large part of the Caraïbe Jazz Ensemble is here too, including Germain Cécé and Charly Chomereau-Lamotte. On the American side, we find Bill Frisell on guitar and Clifford Jordan himself on flute. Long out of print, Butterfly Island was reissued in 2013, and it is this version that is presented here.