Laurent Layne

La Révélation Jazz aux Victoires de la Musique de l'année, est le parangon de cette génération sans complexe. Plus de catégories, plus de clans, primauté donnée au son et au plaisir, avec son nouveau duo (keys & drums !), le claviériste convoque la fine fleur des batteurs hexagonaux. Sans se démonter il convoque sur le même morceau André Cecarelli, figure tutélaire du swing français et Cyril Atef, le trublion de la batterie (et de Bumcello)… et ca marche ! Un disque "toutes oreilles" qui ne laissera pas indifférent et devrait se frayer un joli petit chemin dans le sillage du phénomène Snarky Puppy.

Porté à la fois par un besoin d’insouciance et une urgence humaniste, MEAJAM raconte dans ce nouvel album l’histoire d’UTOPIA. Une entité qui malgré sa condition humaine, renoue avec son environnement : la fascination pour un chêne immense et enveloppant, le chant hypnotisant d’un ruisseau, le souffle chaud ou glacial du vent… Un retour aux sources qui s’avère un voyage initiatique. MEAJAM y questionne en filigrane la place de l’humanité sur notre planète. Sa singularité et son inconscience. Sommes nous des enfants merveilleux (Petits cow-boys) ou des bourreaux sans foi ni loi (Château de cartes)?

A former staffer at the embassy in London, Frenchman Laurent Garnier began DJing in Manchester during the late '80s. By the following decade, he had become one of the best all-around DJs in the world, able to span classic deep house and Detroit techno, the harder side of acid/trance, and surprisingly jazzy tracks as well. He added production work to his schedule in the early '90s, and recorded several brilliant LPs across two additional decades that displayed a similar penchant for diversity.

“Bassiste immédiatement identifiable grâce à un jeu tantôt au pouce, tantôt au majeur, dit en aller-retour, LAURENT BONNOT exploite aussi son instrument en accords ainsi qu'au gré de méticuleuses lignes contrapuntiques entrecroisées qui flirtent de manière fluide et inventive avec les métriques impaires. Il revendique ses influences musicales au delà du champ “bassistique” usuel, s'inspirant de “soufflants” tels BOB BERG, JOHN SURNAM ou MICHEL PORTAL mais aussi des guitaristes JOHN ABERCROMBIE, BILL FRISELL, STEVE VAÏ, ALAN HOLDSWORTH,…

Being a jazz musician often involves being confronted with the unexpected: booed yesterday, cheered today, ignored tomorrow, used to cellars or palaces, constantly on the move and prone to accidents, we go through life as if at an angle according to our meetings and our commitments.

It's very much a trio of equals that recorded Looking For Parker, but alto saxophonist Géraldine Laurent sometimes muscles her way out front. This is partly just the nature of the horn, and partly because she plays the same instrument as Charlie Parker, to whose music the record is dedicated. And most of all, Laurent, more than her band mates, clearly derives from the bebop lineage initiated by Parker.

With its crystalline, otherworldly timbre—evoking the celestial as much as the aquatic—it’s hardly surprising that the classical harp found such a privileged place in the repertoire of early-20th-century impressionist music. For her first recording, Pastel, released by Indésens/Calliope, harpist Mélanie Laurent brings together a selection of works composed during the first half of the twentieth century. Naturally, the great champions of the genre are present: Debussy, Ravel, Tailleferre. It’s also a real pleasure to hear Tailleferre’s Sonata once again in such a rich and warm interpretation, especially given that Anna Castellari’s 2023 version suffered from an overly shrill recording. The same is true of Debussy’s Danses sacrée et profane, where Laurent joins forces with Élodie Laurent (viola), Manon Galy and Sarah Jégou-Sageman (violins) to form a magnificent, enigmatic quartet.