Home » Jazz Articles » Louis Sclavis
Jazz Articles about Louis Sclavis
Louis Sclavis: L'imparfait des langues
by Budd Kopman
L'imparfait des langues represents an attempt by reedman Louis Sclavis to challenge himself compositionally by incorporating new features into his working musical vocabulary while increasing the level of unpredictability. The resulting work is, perhaps surprisingly, the closest thing to a “jazz" album that he has produced. While encouraging change, Sclavis nevertheless has a style that is hard to define, but recognizable with familiarity. A discernible Sclavis habit is to change instrumentation and musicians from ...
Continue ReadingLouis Sclavis: L'imparfait des langues
by John Kelman
Music has long been considered a universal language, with a syntactical potential as broad as the artists who create it. While it's not always easy to articulate in non-musical terms, it's the specific way concept is translated into sound that distinguishes any artist. Clarinetist/saxophonist Louis Sclavis has yet to record two albums for ECM with the same lineup, but on L'imparfait des langues he's intentionally placed himself in unknown territory by assembling a new group with whom (drummer François Merville ...
Continue ReadingLouis Sclavis: L'imparfait des langues
by AAJ Italy Staff
Caratteristica opera di Louis Sclavis, questo L'imparfait des langue mette però anche in evidenza lo spirito di ricerca e di ridiscussione con cui il grande musicista francese si muove da sempre nel suo percorso artistico. Dopo alcuni anni durante i quali Sclavis ha sviluppato la propria poetica all'interno di un gruppo pressoché stabile sia nell'organico strumentale che nei protagonisti, da qualche tempo i suoi lavori vedono all'opera partner di volta in volta diversi e con strumenti cangianti, che permettono alle ...
Continue ReadingLouis Sclavis / Bernard Struber Jazztet: Le Phare
by John Kelman
Though it was originally released in Europe in 1998, now is perhaps a better time for French clarinetist/saxophonist Louis Sclavis' 1998 collaboration with guitarist Bernard Struber's thirteen-piece Jazztet, Le Phare, in North America. With a series of critically acclaimed albums on the ECM label, including L'Affrontement des Prétendents (2001) and Napoli's Walls (2004)--and an outstanding collaboration with trumpeter Dave Douglas on Bow River Falls (Premonition, 2004)--Sclavis' combination of detailed composition and avant-edged improvisation is finally reaching a North American audience ...
Continue ReadingLouis Sclavis' Napoli's Walls: Victoriaville, Canada May 23, 2004
by John Kelman
Sunday, May 23, 2004 was the day for débuts at the Festival International Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Canada. First there was the less-than-successful performance of Tim Berne’s Expanded Science Friction Band . Later that evening French clarinettist/saxophonist Louis Sclavis introduced his current Napoli’s Walls project to a North American audience, and the result was nothing short of staggering.
Hearing the album does nothing to prepare one for the multifarious textures created by Sclavis and his group: long-time musical companion Vincent ...
Continue ReadingLouis Sclavis in Tampere: Memories of a Naples that Never Was
by Matthew Wuethrich
Old Customs Hall Tampere, Finland November 2, 2003
Memory holds a sprawling store of sensations, some of them real and some of them imagined. At its most powerful, memory merges the two to create an image that resonates with emotion and meaning. Napoli’s Walls, the latest project and album from the French reedman Louis Sclavis, presents a series of images derived from Sclavis’ reactions to the public art of Ernest Pignon-Ernest in Naples. To ...
Continue ReadingLouis Sclavis: Dans La Nuit
by Celeste Sunderland
Pedestrians scurry through the softly falling snow. Through the glass of the car window they resemble actors in a silent film. The scene's still beauty is one of winter's finest moments. Dans La Nuit, Charles Vanel's 1930 silent movie, features scenarios which share beauty in the same sense. Recently restored by the Cinemathique Francaise, it tells the tale of a quarry worker whose newlywed bliss shatters when an accident leaves his face deformed. He's forced to wear a metal mask, ...
Continue Reading
