CURIOSITY
Coproduced by Lune de trois, D'Jazz Nevers festival, Jazzdor
Commissioned by the Ministère de la Culture.
"The desire to know the why and the how is called curiosity. "Thomas Hobbes
"Man's free and inquisitive mind is the most valuable thing in the world" - John Steinbeck
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. "- Albert Einstein
« Curiosity is a car-sized rover designed to explore the crater Gale on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission »
Laurent Blondiau : trumpet
David Chevallier : guitars
Sébastien Boisseau : double bass
Christophe Lavergne : drums
I was 12 years old in 1981 when a visiting guitarist lent me the 33-rpm box set "Guitar Music from ECM", introducing me to the music of Ralph Towner, John Abercrombie, Pat Metheny, Egberto Gismonti, Terje Rypdal, Bill Connors and Mick Goodrick.
This set changed my life, as it shaped my musical tastes for a long time, and my guitar practice, then under construction.
A few years later, François Jeanneau, director of the ONJ 86, commissioned a work from my father. I accompanied him to its premiere and then met the guest soloist: trumpet player Kenny Wheeler, also a pillar of the ECM label.
A new shock, and a new reference, which I have never denied since.
Much later, I had the chance to take part in various projects with the wonderful pianist John Taylor, Kenny's companion on the road, and I had the distinct feeling that I was moving in familiar territory, almost as if I were returning home. Since then I have had many musical adventures, often mixing jazz with other music, such as baroque, pop, contemporary and even electro.
With Curiosity, I want to rediscover the feeling of being at John's side, that return to the roots that each of us can aspire to at some point in our lives. I have chosen to make this journey alongside my faithful followers Sébastien Boisseau and Christophe Lavergne, with whom I have been forming a trio since 2013.
I also wanted to change the sound of the group by adding a wind instrument, and I chose the Belgian trumpeter Laurent Blondiau because he carries within him an exact synthesis of what I was looking for, combining lyricism and great freedom in the practice of improvisation.
David Chevallier
"A superb collective success in which leading individualities are revealed"
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"Dark and dreamlike, it is a jazz that can be described as "chamber music", but with large windows opening onto much larger spaces,
and which sparkles the imagination"
Beyond the passionate homage, the first enjoyment of the disc lies beyond the lyricism and the freedom, which is its explicitness: the intelligence and the care put into the arrangements and all that they make swarm...
Pierre Tenne - Jazz News
Extrait du concert du 18/11/22 au Petit Duc, Aix en Provence.
Prise de son : Sébastien Ortega
Réalisation : Eric Hadzinikitas
Excerpts from the album "Curiosity", to be released in September 2022 on Yolk Records