Jazz Articles about Joëlle Léandre

Joelle Leandre & Barre Phillips: A l'improviste

by Nic Jones
December 19, 2008

Both Joelle Leandre and Barre Phillips are bass players who carry a wealth of experience around with them, and they bring it to bear so effectively on A l'improviste that the limitations in sonic and timbrel range implied by a program by such a duo is never an issue. Both musicians are similarly alert to the range of sound their instrument has to offer and both are abundantly equipped to exploit it.

One need hear no ...

Joelle Leandre: Basse continue

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 1, 2008

Joelle Leandre: Basse continue Hors Oeil Editions 2008

2008 was a good year for French bass master Joelle Leandre: a biographical book A voix basse, assembling her talks with journalist and producer Frank Medioni; excellent discs, with bass comrade Barre Phillips--A l'improviste (Kadima Collective), with reed player Akosh S.--KOR (Leo), her Stone Quartet (DMG); and a recent documentation of her 2007 tour in Israel--Live In Israel (Kadima Collective). And now this remarkable documentary film, ...

Joelle Leandre Triple: Winter in New York (2006); DMG @ The Stone Vol. 1 & Freeway

by Kurt Gottschalk
June 8, 2008

Joelle Leandre & Kevin Norton Winter in New York 2006 Leo Records 2007 Joelle Leandre / Marilyn Crispell / Roy Campbell, Jr. / Mat Maneri The Stone Quartet DMG/ARC 2008 Joelle Leandre / Pascal Contet Freeway Clean Feed 2007

There's one thing that, perhaps ...

Joelle Leandre

by Kurt Gottschalk
March 15, 2008

Joelle Leandre has a huge voice. Not just a formidable singing voice, which can be friendly and frightening, charming and vulgar. And not only on her instrument which can be firmly grounded one moment and soar the next. Leandre's voice unabashedly carries conversation, carries it to unexpected places, making quick turns, never slowing down or backing off. Gender and race, world politics, freedom, jazz--as much of herself as she gives in concert, she can be just as open and direct ...

Joelle Leandre: The Art of the Duo

by John Eyles
March 2, 2008

"I was interested in the political sense, what is the position of the bass? Why does the bass have that position in the orchestra? Why only the low sounds? Why only as an accompanying instrument? I was bored with the hierarchy of the bass in the classical music. I did not want this position. It is the same in the commercial, classical jazz. I cut that radically. I don't want that position." Joelle Leandre in a 2008 interview ...

Joelle Leandre: On Freedom and Responsibility

by Eyal Hareuveni
January 21, 2008

“You're playing like Jimi Hendrix." That was the nicest compliment that French bassist Joelle Leandre received in her first tour of Israel and the Palestinian Authority in late November, 2007. Leandre's last solo concert was in Ramallah before an attentive audience that was mostly unfamiliar with her resume as one of the most creative musicians of the last forty years. “I was on fire that concert," she tells. “Maybe like Hendrix."

Leandre is one of those ...

Joelle Leandre: No Comment

by Nic Jones
May 27, 2007

This is a reissue of a set first put out in 2001. It features bassist and vocalist Joelle Leandre in a set of solo performances in which she exploits the full sonic potential of her instrument. As a stalwart of both free improvisation and contemporary composition, it's perhaps unsurprising how she manages to reconcile these seemingly disparate fields. What might not be so predictable is the compelling way she goes about the business; the results are admirable in their expressiveness ...