Various Artists: Minnesota sur Seine

The growing alliance between the Twin Cities and Paris that culminated in last month's Minnesota sur Seine festival can only bring good to local cats--especially if the companion CD compilation is available over there. After all, the French were taking jazz very, very seriously back when Yanks were still pissing and moaning about not being able to dance to bebop. The comp's Gallic contributions run graver than ours, for the most part. As gauzy and abstract as a half-remembered dream, bassist Didier Petit's solo rendition of "Over the Rainbow" fiddles with the way we perceive temporal continuity. Reedmaster and trans-Atlantic high-five instigator Michel Portal leads a pack of crack practitioners through dangerous Dark Magus-era Miles territory on the locally recorded "Minneapolis." Fat Kid Wednesdays and Happy Apple bring even more rock to the party, along with a healthy measure of levity. Voulez-vous fusion plus?