Magic Malik Fanfare XP3 at New Morning

Magic Malik Fanfare XP3
New Morning
Paris, France
March 26, 2023

The New Morning is located in the center of Paris, one mile from the now, sadly, infamous Bataclan. The late Roy Hargrove loved this place and wrote "Strasbourg Saint Denis" in reference to this venue. On Saturday, March 26, 2023, the club featured the band Magic Malik Fanfare XP3.

This band is led by "Magic" Malik Mezzadri, born in Abidjan and raised on Guadeloupe Island. His main instrument is the flute which led him from reggae to jazz music. In 2017, following a meeting with trumpeter Olivier Laisney and saxophonist Pascal Mabit, he founded Fanfare XP, a gathering of musicians around a shared musical charter that includes compositional and improvisational tools developed by Malik during his career, In particular, a concept named "taléas-colors" (shifts between rhythmic and melodic phrases), and tonal signatures according to the harmonic world developed by Malik. That night the band included 12 musicians.

There were two flautists (Malik, who also also used his voice in a Kirkian way, and Fanny Menegoz), two brass instruments (Olivier Laisney and Johan Blanc on trombone), two saxophones (Pascal Mabit on alto and tenor and Maciek Lasserre on soprano), three keyboards (Maïlys Marronne on acoustic piano, Alexandre Herer on Fender Rhodes and Danielle Moreau on synthesizers), Gilles Coronado on guitar, Nicolas Bauer on electric bass and Vincent Sauve on drums. This very unusual format leads to an ensemble with a decidedly different sound—XP is a short form for "experience," but these experiences depend on elaborated arrangements which have nothing to do with notes written on the back of an envelope.

The affiliation to Steve Coleman's "Metrics" is clear, but one can also hear other influences. Joe Zawinul said from Weather Report that "we never solo, we always solo;" Malik extends this formulation by giving his musicians a large place to express their creativity, but always with active interest from the other colleagues who may (or may not) intervene. This is part of the charter (and lead sheets) which can be found in the last record produced by the group Magic Malik Fanfare XP3 (Onze Heure Onze, 2018).

A particularly effective means of their expression is the long interventions supported by hard-driving ostinatos. From a "big band" conception, the Don Ellis Big Band also comes to mind because of the variety of the instrumentations and the rhythmic complexity of the musical gems delivered by this underrated leader. During the whole performance, Fanfare XP never decreases its power, even in more restricted formulas with smaller ensembles—for example, one piece was for a sextet, and the encore featured a quartet.

Malik also knows where some of his roots are and chose to play a novel version of John Coltrane's "26-2," renamed "26-3" for this evening (the date of the concert, as spelled in French, was 26-3, March 26). However, the entire evening was filled with rhythmic density, melodic variety, and constant energy which were deeply internalized by the audience for three hours of music. Malik summed up his musical philosophy as "the composition of the heart of an XP (excepting due arrangements or ornamentations) will not exceed the time span of a sunrise or a sunset."

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