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| music for body and soul |______________________|| |
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|| release infos |
'| |
| |
| + artist ........... christian escoude |
| + album ............ ma ya. ya |
| + label ............ Nocturne |
| + cat .............. NTCD365 |
| + year ............. 2005 |
| + genre ............ jazz |
| + source ........... cdda |
| + quality .......... VBRkbps / 44,1Khz / joint-stereo |
| + release date ..... 19.10.2005 |
| + size ............. 78,1 MB |
| + link ............. www.nocturne.fr/produit.cfm?id_produit=624 |
.| |
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|| tracklist |
'| |
| |
| 01.ma ya. ya 06:14 |
| 02.mister wonder 05:30 |
| 03.p'tit frΦre 06:11 |
| 04.le quintet 03:24 |
| 05.insensiblement 05:12 |
| 06.rag doll 04:10 |
| 07.made in valse 04:40 |
| 08.iles de pΓques 05:24 |
| 09.wes 05:21 |
| 10.lumiΦres d'automne 06:14 |
| 11.ritournelle 04:14 |
| |
| |
| (t!) total 56:34 min |
| |
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|| release notes |
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| |
| Personnels: |
| ----------- |
| Christian Escoude - Guitare |
| Marcel Azzola - Accordeon |
| Stephane Guillaume - Saxophone, flute |
| Jean-Baptiste Laya - Guitare |
| Jean-Marc Jafet - Basse |
| Bruno Ziarelli - Batterie |
| |
| Review: |
| ------- |
| |
| After a six-year silence, the Gypsy guitarist is back with a new |
| album entitled Ma ya. Ya, which masterfully combines a composer's |
| maturity with the talents of an adventurous jazz man. |
| |
| Christian Escoude was born in 1947 to a Gypsy father and a mother |
| from the Charente region of southwest France. His father was a |
| guitarist and a major fan of Django Reinhardt; he taught Christian |
| his first chords at the age of ten and passed on his love for |
| Gypsy jazz. At fifteen, Christian followed his father into a |
| career in music and played weekends at local dances in the region. |
| At home, the radio was always tuned to jazz programmes, and the |
| young guitarist would copy what he heard from Charlie Parker, |
| Eroll Gardner, Coleman Hawkins and, of course, Django Reinhardt. |
| Christian EscoudΘ was following in the footsteps of the great |
| Django, but very early he decided to take a detour: "The U.S. army |
| was still in France at that stage. There was a U.S. base right |
| next to us in AngoulΩme. I used to play there with an orchestra; |
| we'd do all the classics of American popular music, from Misty to |
| All The Things you are..." He used his experiences there to build |
| up a different kind of repertoire. "In the evenings, I'd meet up |
| with my student friends so they could teach me new stuff. That's |
| what inspired me to set my sights higher, and go down a more |
| modern route." |
| |
| Christian EscoudΘ was one of those artists who was very much |
| involved in the first wave of change in the sixties. He turned 20 |
| in 1967, not long after the arrival of rock'n'roll and the |
| electric guitar, and he soon conceived of jazz as an evolving |
| artform. He quickly moved on from swing to modern jazz. "The |
| sixties were a very creative time for jazz. Coltrane, Miles Davis, |
| Monk, Parker, all that was new, and resonated with me." The |
| guitarist shook off the influence of Django for a while. "Stupidly |
| I considered him as out of style, a jazz musician of the previous |
| generation, and if I ignored his music, it was also a type of |
| rebellion against my father." The world's greatest Gypsy musician |
| has nonetheless cast his shadow over Christian EscoudΘ's career, |
| something he readily admits: "Django's music is timeless, like |
| Bach or Ravel. He was the precursor, the original genius." |
| Ultimately, he has always situated himself in relationship to |
| Django, whether as an influence or in opposition to him. "My |
| ability to improvise, that's what I got from Django, and from |
| Charlie Parker too. Let's say I've always cultivated that side of |
| things, that tradition of jazz musicians who make an effort not to |
| play in a clichΘd way." |
| |
| Going electric |
| -------------- |
| With arrival of amplified music, EscoudΘ plumped for the electric |
| guitar and found in Wes Montgomery a model of innovation. |
| EscoudΘ's technique kept its gypsy inflections, its vibrato and |
| portamento, and was characterised by his masterful use of whole |
| and half-tone arpeggios. Surprising the listener was as important |
| to him as playing in a modern style. His first concert at the Jazz |
| Inn was in 1972. After working with Michel Portal, Slide Hampton |
| an Martial Solal, to name just a few, Christian EscoudΘ finally |
| won the Django Reinhardt prize in 1976, awarded by the Academy Of |
| Jazz. In 1979, he recorded with the John Lewis's quartet and |
| performed at the Festival of Nice alongside greats such as Stan |
| Getz and Bill Evans. In 1980, Christian EscoudΘ went on a world |
| tour with John McLaughlin, joined the Solal orchestra in 1981 and |
| started up his own quartet in that same year. In 1983, he played |
| with Didier Lockwood as a duo and in 1985 formed the Trio Giton |
| with Boulou FerrΘ and Babik Reinhardt (the son of guess who!). |
| |
| |
| He continued to work with other musicians and groups until finally |
| he realised he had to start composing: "I started composing in |
| the eighties. It was the era that pushed me into it. Free jazz was |
| on the rise and it was looked down upon and considered |
| old-fashioned not to compose and only perform the standards." His |
| first self-penned album, A Suite for Gypsie û a jazz/rock fusion |
| effort released in 1998 û was to be his last album for Universal |
| after eleven years at the label, and about as many albums. He |
| spent the next six years working live and writing, and created a |
| 17-strong big band in 2003 through which he explored Django's |
| musical heritage. In 2004, he formed then Nouveau Trio Gitan, |
| whose work brings together Christian EscoudΘ's gypsy roots and his |
| predilection for modern jazz. |
| |
| |
| |
| Return to tonal jazz |
| -------------------- |
| That same year, Christian EscoudΘ signed to the Nocturne label and |
| released Progressive sextet Ma ya. Ya in March 2005. "They let me |
| record what I wanted and with who I wanted" It was a much |
| appreciated freedom, given his previous years with a major label. |
| "I met these young virtuosos and also got in touch with my |
| accordionist friend Marcel Azzola. He's a pioneer in terms of |
| quality accordion playing, and helped rescue the instrument from |
| the corny old dance music it was so often used for." Ma ya. Ya is |
| a highly accomplished album of original compositions, with eight |
| new songs, a version of Insensiblement and two tracks by Azzola. |
| It is a work that reflects the guitarist's maturity: "I was |
| searching for my own identity all these years. It seems to be now |
| that playing an evolving, progressive type of jazz has meant I've |
| ended up doing a bit of everything. But ultimately I think what |
| suits me best is a modern jazz that remains tonal, and not atonal |
| such as I played during my free jazz years." The album is |
| deliciously melodic. "I enjoy it most intensely when I'm playing |
| more structured forms of music. Today, I define myself as a |
| neoclassical musician." Ma ya. Ya finds the right balance between |
| the explorations and wisdom of one of the greatest gypsy |
| guitarists of our era. |
| -----------------------------------> Margot Seban @ rfimusique.com |
| |
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|| group notes |
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| Keep your mind, your body and your soul open... peace ... |
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