Jazz Articles about Club d'Elf

About Club d'Elf

Album Review

In overseeing Club D'Elf since its inception over 25 years ago, founder-leader-bassist Mike Rivard has maintained a core lineup around which has revolved a colorful cast of collaborators as eclectic as the music they have played. Loon & Thrush is no exception, yet its creation took place in the shadow of the passing of vocalist- multi-instrumentalist Brahim Frigbaine, not just an artistic contributor, but a practical point of reference for the group's exotic pursuits. Much as Rivard collected ...

Live Review

Club d'Elf At Foam Brewers

by Doug Collette
June 13, 2023

Club d'Elf Foam Brewers Burlington, Vermont June 3, 2023 Less than a week before the formal commencement of Burlington Vermont's Discover Jazz Festival, Club d'Elf set the bar high for the fortieth anniversary celebration of that annual event. Currently in the ongoing process of recognizing a significant milestone of its own--a quarter century mixing exotic strains of rhythm and melody into an ever-so-heady blend--the Massachusetts-based band also continues to make up for lost time visiting ...

Radio & Podcasts

Club d'Elf, Naïssam Jalal, Bill Laurance, Michael League, George & New Releases

by Ludovico Granvassu
March 14, 2023

This week we put together a set which is centered around jazz influenced by Gnawa music, and musicians and bands which know how to “develop and envelope," i.e. develop a melody and mood which envelopes the listener. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Bill Laurance, Michael League “Tricks" Where You Wish You Were (ACT) 0:16 Host talks 4:59 Club d'Elf “In a Perfect World" As Above ...

Album Review

Club d'Elf: As Above - Live At The Lizard Lounge

Read "As Above - Live At The Lizard Lounge" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
February 20, 2023

The music of Club d'Elf's debut album, As Above, speaks volumes in terms of the group's mystical and stylistic roots. In fact, it is perfectly reflective of the actual ancient quote from which the title is taken; 'As above, so below...' suggests how the rhythm motifs are as fully and completely developed as the melodic themes. Recorded in 1999 and 2000, at the Lizard Lounge in Boston, which has become Mike Rivard and company's home base over the ...

Album Review

Club d'Elf: You Never Know

Read "You Never Know" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
October 19, 2022

You Never Know is the Club d'Elf studio album that captures the whirling, overlapping orbits of acoustic, electric and exotic sounds of the floating improvisational collective, which has recorded and performed together for more than two decades, with crisp studio clarity. But more importantly, You Never Know celebrates light born from darkness. Bassist and bandleader Mike Rivard, the sole constant in the collective's 24-year run, suffered a near-death experience from a pulmonary embolism which struck him while he ...

Album Review

Club D'Elf: You Never Know

Read "You Never Know" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 7, 2022

Near-death experiences can reboot the mind, separating the important from the trivial. It seems to have worked like that for bassist and composer Mike Rivard, founder and leader of Boston's world-dub-jazz band Club D'Elf. A few years back, Rivard was nearly felled by a pulmonary embolism while seeking spiritual insight in the Amazonian rain forest. A long, dark period of depression followed, before Rivard emerged recharged into the light, having been sustained in large part by gnawa, the Moroccan trance ...

Album Review

Club d'Elf: Night Sparkles

Read "Night Sparkles" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
December 1, 2019

On December 16, 2011, bassist and bandleader Mike Rivard and the rest of the floating Club d'Elf instrumental ensemble assembled at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge (MA), for their regular gig at the regular location in the extended live residency that the band began at the Lounge back in 1998 (and continues to this day). Guest musicians often dropped in after finishing their own Boston area gigs to join the Club and this evening would prove no exception, as Boston ...