2/5/2012 at Canapé, Gif-sur-Yvette, L.Coq duo w/ Ralph Lavital
2/21/22 at Sunside, Paris, L.Coq trio for a tribute to Thelonious Monk w/ Yoni Zelnik on doublebass and Donald Kontomanou on drums
2/22/2012 at The Disquaires, Paris, w/ Sandro Zerafa quartet (Birthday party)
3/2&3/2012 at Duc des Lombards, Paris, w/ Sachal Vasandani
3/3/2012 (afternoon) at Cité de la Musique, Paris, concert-conference about Thelonious Monk w/ Laurent de Wilde
3/4/2012 at Muri, Switzerland, w/ Sachal Vasandani
3/7/2012 at Canapé, Gif-sur-Yvette w/ Marie Busato
3/23/2012 at Vaulx-en-Velin, w/ Pierrick Pedron Omry Cheerleaders
3/30/2012 at Sunside, Paris, w/ David Prez CD release party for new album Awakening (Paris Jazz Underground)
4/1/2012 at Penharst, Quimper, w/ Pierrick Pedron Omry Cheerleaders
4/4/2012 at Pannonica, Nantes, w/ Pierrick Pedron Omry Cheerleaders
4/5/2012 in Saint Brieuc w/ Pierrick Pedron Omry Cheerleaders
4/7/2012 in Vitrolles, w/ Sandro Zerafa
4/25/2012 at the Disquaires, Paris, w/ David Prez
5/17/2012 at Coutances, Jazz sous les Pommiers, w/ Pierrick Pedron Omry Cheerleaders
8/5/12 at Newport Jazz Festival, Newport RI, w/ Miguel Zenon Rayuela Dana Leong (cello, trombone) & Dan Weiss (drums, tabla, percussion)
8/23/12 at Malguenac w/ Pierrick Pedron Omry Cheerleaders
Tribute to the great Fred Hersch
This is Fred Hersch's composition Valentine that he often plays as an encore. That is precisely what he did last Friday the 4th of November, 2011, at Sunside in Paris where he played with John Hebert and Eric McPherson and I couldn't take it out of my head. So here is my version. Here's to you Fred !
Pierrick Pédron - Cheerleaders
Recorded at ICP Studios in Brussels with Jean Lamoot and Ludovic Bource, Cheerleaders is the second album of Pierrick Pédron groupe Omry featuring Vincent Artaud, Chris De Pauw, Franck Agulhon, Fabrice Moreau and myself. These songs written by Pierrick (I did all the arrangements and wrote the last song Toshiko) are put together with a fanfare arranged by Vincent Artaud. This is a suite infused by many influences that has drawn rave reviews from the critic. Release date Septembre 29.
I am very excited about Malta guitar player Sandro Zerafa's new album that was recorded at Studio La Buissonne (south of France) by Nicolas Baillard last fall, along with acoustic bass player Yoni Zelnik and drummer Karl Jannuska. The mixing and mastering were completed by Katsuhiko Naito at Avatar Studios (New York) in January 2011. It features ten originals by Sandro that could as well have been recorded in NY, for these inventive forms, haunting melodies and daring harmonies sound like they've just come out of a Brooklyn session. The album is being released in April 2011 on French Collective Paris Jazz Underground (PJU) label, and soon will be available in stores around France as well as all the major digital platforms.
Blurred Vision
Guilhem Flouzat - One Way... Or Another
Guilhem Flouzat is a young drummer and composer from France who is currently studying at the Manhattan School. We met some five years ago when he was my student at Edim in Paris. Ever since, he's come a long way. Last year, he asked me to take part of the recording of his first album as a leader, which took place at Gimmick Studios in Paris, last August, with sound engineer Sylvain Thévenard.
The group is a cosmopolitan sextet featuring American tenor saxophonist Ben Wendel, young French alto player Antonin Hoang, young French guitarist -another NY expatriate and former sutdent- Michael Valeanu and, alternating (expect on one track where they play together), French bass player Simon Tailleu and Italian bassist Matteo Bortone. Last but not least, Armenian pianist Tygran Hamasyan displays his explosive and unique voice on two tunes. We mixed this awesome music with old time friend and excellent sound engineer Katsuhiko Naito at Avatar in New York.
Repertoire is exclusively written by Guilhem and is far removed from what one usually expects from a young drummer. Absolutely no show-off in these fine tracks, but instead a very homogenous ensemble of tunes that demonstrates a precocious vision and quite remarquable maturity... requiring your full attention !
The album comes out in January 2011 and is available at Onze Heure Onze, a French musicians collective.
Stomping
A new kind of gro(o)ve
After almost 10 years with label Cristal, I'm proud to announce the birth of 88TREES, my own label. The new quartet album entitled Eight Fragments Of Summer will be available (physically and digitally online) in April 2009 on 88TREES, as well as Verstatile, Blowing Trio Live at the Duc, Like A Tree In The City, and Spinnin'. Only the second Blowing Trio recording The Thing To Share remains on Cristal. Why ? Because that's the only one I didn't produced. More soon...
