Spotlight on French Jazz (Part Two) – 2013
Thanks to: Institut Français & the Consulat
Général de France à Vancouver
(by Ken Pickering Artistic Director)
The second part of this
year’s edition of the Spotlight on French Jazz program focuses on one of the
most beloved instrumental formats in all of jazz: the piano trio.
In this era of digital electronic
media it’s interesting to make note of the resurgence of the piano trio afoot, indeed there’s nothing short of a renaissance ensuing for this historic
acoustic format in today’s jazz world. An almost random sampling of the younger
generation of jazz pianists (many working in the trio format) making their mark
on today’s scene might include: Craig Taborn, David Virelles, Kris Davis, Vijay
Iyer, Havard Wiik, Jason Moran, Matt Mitchell, and then there’s the bassist
lead piano trios of Mats Eilertsen and Jasper Hoiby (Phronesis). The well of new pianists on the scene runs
very deep and the omissions could fill up the entire page. Might be a fun little social media exercise to create your own list and put it out there.
Clearly there’s a great
deal of talent all over the world however it’s evident that France has produced
an abundance of excellent young classically trained pianists that quite
naturally exhibit impressionistic influences by way of Debussy and Ravel at the
root of their explorations in jazz. Yet there’s always new wine in the old
bottle and the best of these trios bring a freshness to the music primarily
through the well established lens of the late 20th century giants; Bill
Evans, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett extending to the more
recent exploits of Brad Mehldau and rock influences of E.S.T and the Bad Plus.
Two of the youngest
generation of French jazz pianists will be joining us for this year’s festival
and both will be appearing at Performance Works on Granville Island: Thomas
Enhco and Rémi Panossian.
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Thomas Enhco Trio
June 27th –
Performance Works – 1:30pm (2 sets, free)
Thomas Enhco Trio
At just 24 years of age
Thomas Enhco is writing original music that at times is characterized by a
lyricism and individuality that belies his youth.
Classically trained, Thomas
was already proficient on the violin and piano by 9 years of age at which time
the great French violinist Didier Lockwood invited him to perform at the famous Antibes
Juan-Les-Pins Jazz Festival. His first CD was sponsored by Peter Erskine and
released in 2006 and he hasn’t looked back since then, with more recording, a
film score, touring in France and Japan and performances with jazz greats Mike
Stern, Birili Lagrene and Toots Thielemans.
The music on his most
recent album “Fireflies” has an infectious power and energy and if not
wholly original, the recorded music sounds fresh and grooves hard (although for a young pianist he’s certainly not afraid of
ballads). It's an album I find myself listening to it often. This young pianist is well
worth paying attention to. The album features ex-pat Canadian bassist Chris
Jennings and Belgian drummer Nicolas Charlier.
Here’s a good example of
the Thomas Enhco Trio sound – The Outlaw @ Olympia, Paris
July 1st –
Performance Works on Canada Day – 3:45pm (free)
Rémi Panossian Trio
Just a few years older
than Enhco, Rémi Panossian has some similarities; for example he also began his piano
studies at a very young age (7); by the time he was 10 he was hooked on jazz through an encounter with the legendary French pianist Michel Petrucciani (who just happened to be the first
ever Coastal Jazz presentation at the Western Front circa early 80’s).
Rémi Panossian also has a beautiful touch on the instrument. He seems to be developing an original approach to the trio that draws upon
E.S.T and the Bad Plus filtered through Steve Coleman’s influential M-Base concepts
that are above all concerned with conceptual and spiritual growth but also seem
to bring a more overtly rhythmic and funkier feel to Panossian’s approach to
the trio format. That’s what I’m hearing - but do listen and see what you think. It feels like the expansion of the rhythmic
framework gives this music a bit of a turbo boost. Rémi has also collaborated with Aldo Romano
and Pierrick Pédron (PP's band was at last year’s festival), recorded often and toured the
world in the last couple of years. His band includes: Maxime Delporte - bass (also responsible for filming
and editing some of the very cool online videos) and Frédéric Petitprez – drums.
Here’s Remi’s EPK translated
into English.
BBQ Rémi Panossian Trio
(from BBang) – dig the Ramones t-shirt on the drummer.
I haven't had the opportunity to hear either of these trios in the live context yet, but based on the recorded evidence I'm very much looking forward to the shows. See you at Performance Works.
Thanks to: Institut Français & the Consulat
Général de France à Vancouver
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