Jazz Articles about Benoit Delbecq

Andy Milne - Benoit Delbecq: Where Is Pannonica?

by AAJ Italy Staff
October 28, 2009

Where is Pannonica? è nato dall'incontro tra due voci ben accreditate nel panorama del jazz internazionale: se Milne è noto per la sua collaborazione con Steve Coleman, Dulbecq è un pianista parigino che ha collezionato importanti partnership con vari jazzisti, ma noto anche per un'attitudine sperimentale che si configura in un'ideale estetica a metà strada tra Gyorgy Ligeti e Bud Powell. I due a partire dal primo brano lavorano su un pianoforte 'preparatissimo' a base di pezzetti di legno, portachiavi, ...

Kartet: The Bay Window

by AAJ Italy Staff
July 30, 2007

Monk, Lacy, Ligeti, nuove forme chicagoane ed intelligentissimi incroci fra jazz e avant-garde. Questo il menu proposto dai Kartet, quartetto atipico (questa la sostanziale traduzione del nome) nato a Parigi attorno agli inizi degli anni ’90, molto ben visto e supportato dai tipi di “The Wire”, come già detto, tra le più sagge riviste dedicate alla musica oggi sul mercato. Kartet è innanzitutto creatività propulsiva. Quasi jazz cameristico in senso però del tutto differente dal cliché contemporaneo e mosso da ...

Benoit Delbecq: Phonetics

by Francis Lo Kee
November 4, 2005

Benoît Delbecq is a unique and diligent musical explorer who deserves your listening attention. Phonetics and some recent performances provide a helpful introduction to two very developed aspects of his musical being. In his solo piano playing (heard at the Jazz Gallery last month) Delbecq used a prepared piano technique that turned his grand piano into a grand African thumb piano of sorts. It was no mere gimmick: Delbecq carefully changed the “preparations while he talked to ...

Benoit Delbecq

by AAJ Staff
October 15, 2005

By Ethan Iverson

Luminous harmony, intellectual rigor, and modernist piano technique will be on display when French pianist Benoît Delbecq performs two nights early this month at Jazz Gallery. Although he has played improvised music festivals all over the world, these will be his first New York solo performances. Delbecq dramatically sets himself apart from other jazz pianists by preparing the piano with objects in the John Cage tradition. “I use mostly curved bits of dried wood ...

Benoit Delbecq Unit: Phonetics

by AAJ Staff
June 27, 2005

After two relatively stripped-down efforts, the duo Dice Thrown (Songlines, 2002) and solo Nu-Turn (Songlines, 2003), Parisian pianist Benoit Delbecq returns with a quintet for Phonetics, taking full advantage of the extended range of his group--stylistically, timbrally, and texturally. Delbecq's music draws from several diverse traditions, including the often counterintuitive constructs of modern classical music, the excitement and unpredictability of improvisation, and the polyrhythmic and contrapuntal complexity of Central African music.

All these big concepts have the potential ...

Benoit Delbecq: Nu-Turn

by AAJ Staff
September 25, 2003

I've never been one to dwell on the technological aspects of a recording, but hearing Nu-Turn in six-channel surround sound must be a surreal experience. As it is, the machine on my rack dates from 1990, old enough to predate the home theater era and the advent of SACD recording, so two channels are all I've got. But regardless, there's something oddly vibrant about Benoit Delbecq's solo piano performances, an interwoven tapestry of focused improvisation, African rhythms, trance music, impressionism, ...

Benoit Delbecq and Fran: Dice Thrown

by AAJ Staff
February 19, 2003

Whenever jazz musicians make a duet record, its success or failure ultimately depends on how well they can join together. Interactive conversation and a shared sense of discovery can make for a brilliant record, while unbridled extroversion or poor attention spans can render it dismal. It's all in the fragile bridge between the parts.

In the case of Dice Thrown, the interaction between French pianist Benoit Delbecq and Canadian clarinetist François Houle--who joined forces five years ago on ...