Troy Dumoulin

This album explores the experience of foreigners in France. I see myself as belonging to a long genealogy of American artists who moved to Paris to escape the USA, a country that does not support its creators. Unlike my illustrious predecessors, I arrived in France during a pandemic that paralyzed the Parisian artistic scene. Paradoxically, the cancellation of live performances made it easier for me to collaborate with Parisian musicians and focus on composing. Rooted in the values and approaches of jazz, this album offers a musical view of Paris in the Covid-19 era. The ensemble’s direction, concept, and instrumentation is electronic and contemporary, using musical languages outside of the jazz tradition. Notably it mobilizes concepts from South Indian Carnatic music and North Africa. If French jazz musicians tend to mystify the New York and American music scene, having made the reverse journey, my music celebrates the mixing of culture that makes Paris a musical center.

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.

After murdering his adoptive grandfather, the Emperor Tiberius, Caligula seizes power and begins to dismantle the Roman Empire from within. A treatise on the corrupting influence of power, Caligula undertakes a harrowing journey through depravity, madness, and destruction. 40 years after its original release, Penthouse Films International presents a completely new cut of the shocking cult classic Caligula, featuring an unprecedented amount of never-before-seen footage. One of the biggest scandals in cinema history, the notoriously decadent film is finally presented in the manner it was always intended to be seen. Starring Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, John Gielgud, and Helen Mirren.

After murdering his adoptive grandfather, the Emperor Tiberius, Caligula seizes power and begins to dismantle the Roman Empire from within. A treatise on the corrupting influence of power, Caligula undertakes a harrowing journey through depravity, madness, and destruction. 40 years after its original release, Penthouse Films International presents a completely new cut of the shocking cult classic Caligula, featuring an unprecedented amount of never-before-seen footage. One of the biggest scandals in cinema history, the notoriously decadent film is finally presented in the manner it was always intended to be seen. Starring Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, John Gielgud, and Helen Mirren.

This is the lone solo album by sideman Roger "Jellyroll" Troy, a consummate session player who was best known for his collaborations with blues bandleader Michael Bloomfield, including as part of a reunited mid-'70s version of Electric Flag. Troy's bona fides go back even further than that: while still a teen, he was the bassist in the novelty rock band, the Hollywood Argyles, and went on to gigs with James Brown and Freddie King. In 1969 he cut an album as the leader of the band Jellyroll (which was his nickname) and he had considerable success as a songwriter in the early '70s. This album is pretty much pure white soul, with a heavy Muscle Shoals feel: four songs were written by Troy, though tellingly he also covers Dan Penn, whose emotive vocals style is echoed in Troy's own phrasing. Among the many musicians backing him are jazz saxophonist Ernie Watts and pianist/producer Mike Lipskin… Fans of the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Joe Cocker and any number of eclectic Memphis roots/soul bands might want to check this one out.