Michel Portal - Dockings (Label Bleu, 1997)

 
Michel Portal, bass clarinet, clarinet, bandoneon, alto sax
Markus Stockhausen, trumpet
Bojan Zulfikarspsic (aka Bojan Z), piano
Steve Swallow, electric bass
Bruno Chevillon, bass
Joey Baron, drums

Recorded June 1997

Studio Gil Evans, Amiens, France

Engineer: Pierre Guinot

French reed player Michel Portal received many insightful tributes upon his death on February 12, 2026. He was 91 years old. Dockings was my introduction to his music and is still one of the most treasured albums in my library. Although Portal was in his early 60s for this recording, he never sounds old to me. The last of his albums that I acquired was MP85 (Label Bleu, 2021), signifying his 85th birthday. 

Calling Portal a legend is an understatement. His omnipresence in France and across Europe yielded hundreds of compositions, recordings and performances, not only of jazz but also classical and contemporary music, as well as film scores. A comprehensive discography at Michel Portal Discography is overwhelmingly long and detailed.

Dockings begins with "Barouf," roughly translated as "commotion" or "racket". It's not a wild racket but it features long ostinato passages with Portal conversing with Joey Baron. This pattern recurs on "Dolphy," "Lion's Dream," and "Tourniole." While not as intense as, say, John Coltrane's duets with Elvin Jones or Rashied Ali, Baron's steady beat gives Portal and trumpeter Markus Stockhausen a firm foundation for their improvisations.

Portal also engages with Stockhausen in duets between bass clarinet and muted trumpet. "Barouf," and "Mutinerie" are key instances of their exchanges. 

Each track on Dockings brings new musical surprises using various players in differing roles. The ostinato passages usually preface more complex interplay, and the combinations of timbres vary throughout. With two bass players, additional options become available to delight and surprise. 

The varied settings and collective talents of the band members support Portal's musical ambitions. The album is not a series of "jams," but rather carefully devised combinations of sounds that might feel improvised, but which mostly are not. Portal appears to draw from his classical resources to avoid all-out free jazz. His own numerous solos always tip on the edge of free expression but never dissipate into mindless blowing. 

The band are pictured on the tray card. From left to right, they are Swallow, Zulfikarspsic, Portal, Stockhausen, Chevillon, and Baron.

The only cover in the program is Carla Bley's "Ida Lupino," given a reverent treatment by Portal on bandoneon and Swallow on electric bass. It's a tasteful gesture in an otherwise adventurous album. Bley's and Portal's deaths less than three years apart make "Ida Lupino" even more poignant.

I've read many reviews of Dockings and heard it dozens of times over the past 25 years. It receives almost universal admiration and should not be missed by any serious jazz aficionado.