Le Parisien 6 a Rip

“The best new thing that has happened in European jazz for a long time” (Le Monde), Emile Parisien has formed a top-flight American-European sextet for this album, his seventh as leader or co-leader on ACT. The band will be touring in 2022, the year which also marks the tenth anniversary of Parisien’s first appearance on an ACT album.

French saxophonist Émile Parisien, instigator of some of the most musical, formidably skilful yet wackily diverting adventures in recent European jazz, makes a rare UK visit in a duo at November’s London jazz festival, but this exuberant album rams home the full Parisien experience, with a new quintet, regular accordion partner Vincent Peirani, and two revered European elder statesmen in German pianist Joachim Kühn and French bass clarinet original Michel Portal. From the opening vibrato-trembling soprano sax Préambule (Parisien can be a spiky avantist, but he’s a devoted Sidney Bechet admirer, too), through the hard-swinging Poulp – which sounds like the work of a 21st-century Hot Club band with Ornette Coleman leanings – through the contemporary-noir doom-walk of Brainmachine or the accordion-throbbing Umckaloabo, Parisien leads an exhilarating genre-hop bubbling with captivating remakes of US and European jazz traditions. And Kühn, a majestic soloist inside or outside conventional harmony, sounds as if he’s been an instantly responsive communicator with this lineup – and particularly the leader – for years.

Presenting the 11th edition of ACT's popular Magic Moments series. This CD presents sixty-seven minutes of the best of current jazz. Thoughtful moments sit alongside pure joy and entertainment. With Michael Wollny, David Helbock, Vincent Peirani, Iiro Rantala, Joachim Kühn New Trio, Ida Sand, Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu et al.

Worldwide est le nouvel album du groupe parisien The Big Hustle. Avec un son très marqué funk, ses 11 titres font des incursions dans la soul, le rock, le hip hop… Emmenés par le bassiste Sébastien Levanneur, les musiciens - qu’on a bien envie d’appeler les « hustlers » - sont des aguerris de la scène française. Depuis, plusieurs années, ils travaillent avec des artistes ou des groupes comme Malted Milk, Beat Assailant, Manu Dibango… Ils sont influencés par le funk et le jazz électrique de ces dix dernières années (Lettuce, Soulive, Snarky Puppy, Electro Deluxe). Et ça s’entend !

Kind of Blue isn't merely an artistic highlight for Miles Davis, it's an album that towers above its peers, a record generally considered as the definitive jazz album, a universally acknowledged standard of excellence. Why does Kind of Blue possess such a mystique? Perhaps because this music never flaunts its genius. It lures listeners in with the slow, luxurious bassline and gentle piano chords of "So What." From that moment on, the record never really changes pace – each tune has a similar relaxed feel, as the music flows easily. Yet Kind of Blue is more than easy listening. It's the pinnacle of modal jazz – tonality and solos build from the overall key, not chord changes, giving the music a subtly shifting quality. All of this doesn't quite explain why seasoned jazz fans return to this record even after they've memorized every nuance. They return because this is an exceptional band – Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb – one of the greatest in history, playing at the peak of its power.

French Pop – music so effortlessly cool and hip you can’t help but fall in love, Psychedelia – fuzzy dance floor music to lose yourself too. Put the two together and you have an intoxicating mix that is so lush and so perfect, and a sound that has helped soundtrack recent hit TV series such as The Queens Gambit, Killing Eve, and The Serpent.

Admittedly, the title is misleading, the album is neither showy or flashy, in fact quite the opposite, it is an introversive and lyrical CD. Thrill Box refers to his instrument and Peirani’s unique way to play the accordion is full of surprises. He makes it sound like an organ, a piano, a wind instrument or a human voice, counterpoint and radically reduced passages alternate with dynamic parts, multitoned elegies and percussive parts. Peirani also sings in unison with the accordion, revealing an excellent voice that, along with his accordion prowess, initially got the attention of Youn Sun Nah…

Après un premier single «Ailleurs», puis «Belleville», une ode au quartier parisien, et leur vision de la ville californienne dans «Los Angeles», Grand Blanc présente son nouvel album «Image au mur». Suite de «Mémoires vives» paru en 2016, «Image au mur» propose une pop française décomplexée et ambitieuse, à la fois masculine et féminine, rock et digitale, portée par la voix brute de Benoît et l’élégance éthérée de Camille. Après avoir ouvert pour Indochine sur 15 dates entre février et avril, dont un Bercy en février, Grand Blanc sera en concert à Paris le 26 novembre à La Cigale et en tournée française sur la période automne-hiver.