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The French Scene - Part 3
As we continue our journey in today's French jazz scene, we look at how it has been influenced by the many musical traditions that enrich the French society, in particular those from North Africa and the Middle-East, courtesy of Yacine Boularès, Ibrahim Maalouf, Naïssam Jalal, Smadj and Sophie Alour with Mohamed Abozekry and Wassim Halal). To further widen the range of this episode, the urban influence of hip hop on jazz (Kit De Survie and Thiefs); the faux soundtracks of ...
read moreAnti-Rubber Brain Factory & Sameer Gupta
This episode features two extremely original albums from France, and they couldn't be more different. Guitarist Marc Ducret tackles Shakespeare on his Lady M. He's not the first to look to the Bard of Avon for inspiration (Duke Ellington and Cleo Laine come to mind immediately), but he may be the first one to frame one of Lady MacBeth's soliloquy's with such hard-nosed guitar. The other recording is from the eclectic, always “what's next?," Anti-Rubber Brain Factory led by bassist ...
read moreMarc Ducret - Joëlle Léandre: Chez Hélène
The audience in attendance at the 19PaulFort venue in Paris, France must have been spellbound after witnessing these prolific and highly influential improvisers wield their magic. As leaders and collaborators bassist Joëlle Léandre and guitarist Marc Ducret have pretty much done it all over the years, evidenced by their extensive discographies. Here, the bassist is a galvanized catalyst via her fervent and precise strumming and impossibly fast bowing patterns as Ducret is often the colorist as they counterbalance each other ...
read moreMarc Ducret: Tower vol. 3
Each one of French guitarist Marc Ducret's Tower series albums has featured different lineups and instrumentation. With Tower vol. 3, he employs a three-man trombone attack with percussion and piano performers; as stated in the album liners, the band “plays comments on the music already played." Therefore, the musicians redevelop and dissect previous works appearing on the first two volumes. At times polytonal via the divergent instrumentation mix, the trombonists' powerful choruses supply interesting contrasts as the band takes on ...
read moreMarc Ducret: Tower, Vol. 3
French guitarist Marc Ducret's new sextet, known also as the Real Thing #3 band, was supposed to mark the end of his Tower cycle of compositions, now spread over four discs and at least five projects: a solo guitar, quartet, quintet and the as-yet- unrecorded 12-member Tower-Bridge orchestra. This project was initiated by Ducret in 2008 as an attempt to mirror a musical texture to a chapter from writer Vladimir Nabokov's “Ada," in which he weaves a whole labyrinth made ...
read moreMarc Ducret: Tower, Vol. 4
When French guitarist Marc Ducret began to plan his Tower book of works-- Vol. 1 (2010) for a Franco-Danish quintet and Vol. 2 (2011) for a Franco-American quartet (both on Ayler)-- he thought to transpose to his musical world a literary device that writer Vladimir Nabokov used in his 1969 book Ada. In this book, Nabokov weaves a whole labyrinth made of mirrors, memories and correspondences, eventually building a form which in turn leads to his other books, themes and ...
read moreMarc Ducret: Helsinki, Finland, January 29, 2012
Marc Ducret SoloMalmintaloHelsinki, FinlandJaunary 29, 2012 A solo performance is by definition an intense experience, and when the musician is committed to a style which is itself close to impenetrable the result can be bewildering; in this case a performance is bound only by the resourcefulness of the audience. Those attending this penultimate concert of French guitarist Marc Ducret's Finnish tour almost certainly knew what to expect. With the assistance of ...
read moreShowcase
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Sarabande Blue by Zvonimir Tot
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Cleveland Time by Matthew Alec
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Bernstein Reimagined by Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra
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Thank You Mr. Mabern! by Leon Lee Dorsey
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