Matthieu Michel

Algeria-born bassist Michel Benita, long a mainstay of the French jazz scene, introduces his revised quartet. Swiss flugelhornist Matthieu Michel and French drummer Philippe Garcia are retained from Benita’s Ethics band, and the quartet is completed by Belgian keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin. Dumoulin’s swirling, floating sounds and colours - he sounds like no other Fender Rhodes player - have inspired Benita to write evocative new music for the group. The repertoire also includes a bewitching cover version of Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Inutil Paisagem”, the freely improvised "Cloud To Cloud", and a touching solo bass interpretation of Jule Styne’s “Never Never Land”. Looking At Sounds was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in March 2019.

A Time To Remember is a continuation of the special synergy that inhabited Elina Duni’s acclaimed Lost Ships and finds her regrouping with that album’s quartet of guitarist Rob Luft, Matthieu Michel on flugelhorn and Fred Thomas on percussion and piano. As the title suggests, the notion of ‘time’ pulls through the programme like a theme, connecting music from different parts of the world – traditionals, popular songs and original compositions – in performances of deep lyricism but also fleet-footed folklore. The repertory spans Albanian and Kosovan traditionals, American songs like the Broadway classic “I’ll Be Seeing You” and Stephen Sondheim’s musical ballad “Send In The Clowns” as well as originals by Rob and Elina. Commenting on the group’s last effort, Jazzwise said that “the sum of Duni and Luft’s work together seems greater than their individual achievements, where concept and conceptualisation have combined to produce a classic.” A Time To Remember should confirm that proposition and further expands on the qualities explored previously.

After an album with Didier Ithursarry (accordion) and Ramon Lopez (drums) as guest musicians, the presence of the Swiss double bass player, Heiri Känzig, enriches the duo of Cholet & Michel and his two partners for his new program, Extended Whispers.

Michel Benita est un contrebassiste français de jazz, né le 29 juillet 1954 à Alger, en Algérie. Après avoir vécu à Paris, Pointe-à-Pitre, Nice, la Corse ou Montpellier, Michel Benita déménage à Paris en 1981 et participe à la scène jazz européenne. Il a notamment joué avec Aldo Romano, Marc Ducret, Martial Solal, Lee Konitz, Dino Saluzzi, Erik Truffaz et Archie Shepp. En 1999, il forme le trio ELB avec le guitariste vietnamien Nguyên Lê et le batteur américain Peter Erskine. En 2010, il forme le quintet 'Ethics' avec Eivind Aarset, Mieko Miyazaki, Matthieu Michel et Philippe Garcia. Michel Benita a composé la musique du film du réalisateur Jean Achache Un soir au club (2009), adapté du roman éponyme de Christian Gailly.

Michel Benita, partner of Dewey Redman, Aldo Romano, Marc Ducret, Erik Truffaz and Nils-Petter Molvaer (also norvegian as Eivind Aarset) is acustomed to unsual meetings. Mieko Miyazaki’ Koto and graceful voice, Eivind Aarset’s norvegian guitar, Matthieu Michel’s poetical trumpet, Philippe Garcia’s urban rythms, all organized by a subtil groove, added with electronic compositions of Michel Bentia push us to a unknow place, possible meeting place for all the cultures.

After two exemplary ECM discs in the company of Andy Sheppard, Michel Benita has an album with his own group, Ethics, marking his label debut as a leader. The Ethics band is international, and the Algiers-born bassist leads a line-up comprised of a flugelhornist from Fribourg, Switzerland, a koto player from Tokyo, a guitarist from Drøbak, Norway, and a French drummer who once lived in Turkey as a member of the Istanbul Symphony. The group's music, correspondingly, flows - like the glistening river of the title - beyond borders.