It had been a while since yours truly was so enthralled with what is ultimately a purely instrumental album. For his solo debut Guillaume 'Stepper' Briard, the French saxophonist-with-the-hat was in exquisite company; Stepper has been a member of Sly & Robbie's Taxi Gang for several years now and the legendary riddim tandem made sure that only the best musicians (Robbie Lynn, Ansel collins, Dalton Brownie, Willie Lindo, Ranchie McLean, Nambo Robinson, Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson and Skully Sims) were present for the recording of 'Sly & Robbie present Stepper Takes The Taxi'. In addition, Stepper was also given free range in the huge catalog of the Taxi label, but always makes those well-known riddims his own while at the same time making them sound quite different. Yours truly got goose bumps listening to 'Frenchman In Kingston', a version of Sting's 'Englishman In New York' (or Shinehead's 'Jamaican In New York') but this time over the Baltimore riddim! 'Cool Ruling', stepper's version of the Revolution riddim is another must from the track list and 'Imminent Danger', an instrumental version of the Cuss Cuss riddim, is another high flyer. An album that should definitely be on your Christmas list for 2013!