Jazz /
Terremoto
Tip! To abandon animals for music – and avant-garde jazz at that –, could seeming shocking to some people. However, it is exactly what Manuel Villarroel did, as he was a vet for three years before leaving his native Chili for Europe and a career in music. And though the animals may have suffered, the world of music can be grateful. Born in 1944, Manuel Villarroel lent an ear to the best pianists from North America: Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner then Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Cecil Taylo…
Quetzalcoatl
Tip! Before coming to Europe, in 1970, pianist Manuel Villarroel was a vet in his native Chili. A few years later, as leader of the Machi Oul Big Band, he returned to the animal kingdom. A very specific kind of animal, for sure, the Quetzalcoatl, also known as the Feathered Serpent. What is behind this title (also the name of one of the three original compositions on this album released on the Palm label in 1976), is first and foremost a sort of homecoming…
After discovering the jazz of Herbie H…
Rustiques
A study of contrasts as French improvising synth player Jean-Marc Foussat joins with legendary saxophonist & bass clarinetist Sylvain Guerineau, whose work in both jazz tradition and free playing finds him a lyrical and expressive player, bringing flexibility in combination with a seemingly disparate foil in Foussat, heard in six succint dialogs of unconventional compatibility.
"Recorded at home in November 2022 in the Loiret, this curious little regional river which gives its name to the depart…
Libres (Festival de Massy 26 Octobre 1975)
"Armonicord. In 1977 an album was released under the name of Armonicord, of which I have just found a copy through a mutual friend: Esprits de Sel. Having heard of the album's release at that time, the memory of the presence of harpsichordist Odile Bailleux and drummer Christian Lete undoubtedly made me imagine a possible sort of chamber music. In the cover, we can admire the graphic scores of baritone saxophonist Jouk Minor, all in curves and ellipses with instrument and timing indications. A m…
Enfin La Mer
1978 live recording of French quintet consisting of Jouk Minor on beritone sax and contrabass clarinet, Josef Traindl on trombone, Jean Querlier on alto sax, Christian Lété on drums and Dominique Regef on hurdy-gurdy
Our Meanings And Our Feelings
Killer! Reissue, originally released in 1969. An iconic French free jazz record recorded at Pathé Marconi Studios. On June 27th, 1969, Michel Portal pushed the door of the Pathé Marconi studios. With him were drummers Jacques Thollot and Aldo Romano, bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, and pianist Joachim Kühn. They hadn't rehearsed anything, as if entering the studio to record an album without any plan was something normal. The musicians were obviously very used to playing with each other, as th…
Workshop
In October 1974, the first number of “L'Indépendant du Jazz”, a small self-produced magazine DIY -before punk supposedly invented the concept- was launched by Jef Gilson, Gérard Terronès, Jean-Jacques Pussiauand a few other specialists of a different kind of jazz in France, it looked at the already long career of Jef Gilson and in detail at the album with saxophonist Philippe Maté : The "Workshop" is, with Philippe Maté (alto-sax), an undeniable success. Maté is genuinely ‘the’ most inventive Fr…
Shape
*2022 stock* Futura Marge presents Shape by Alexandra Grimal (tenor & soprano saxophones ), Antonin Rayon (Hammond & Clavinet) & Emmanuel Scarpa (drums) .
Recorded on June 30th 2008 at the Sunset, Paris. Digipak.
Existences
*2022 stock* Futura Marge presents Existences by Trio Passeurs (Véronique Magdelenat alto and soprano sax, Bernard Santacruz doublebass & Christian Rollet drums).
Recorded live 15th november 2008 at l'AJMI - La Manutention in Avignon (France)
Dazibao N°2
Reissue of François Tusques's Dazibao n°2, originally released in 1971. This was of course not the first time that François Tusques was a "headline act". In 1965, he recorded, with other like-minded Frenchmen (François Jeanneau, Michel Portal, Bernard Vitet, Beb Guérin, and Charles Saudrais), the first album of free jazz in France, named... Free Jazz. In 1967, Tusques again served up Le Nouveau Jazz, in the company of Barney Wilen (and Beb Guérin, Jean-François Jenny-Clark, and Aldo Romano). Thr…
Piano Dazibao
To avoid the “Quésaco?” on the sleeve of Piano Dazibao, François Tusques explains everything: A wall mural on which the Red Guard expressed their opinions during the Chinese proletarian cultural revolution. So much for the “Dazibao”, very good; but the piano in all that? The piano, François Tusques was self-taught and his work was influenced by Jelly Roll Morton and Earl Hines before discovering Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and then… free jazz. In Paris in 1965, Tusques mixed with Michel Portal, …
Alors !!!
*2022 stock* Tip! Michel Portal, a brilliant clarinetist, saxophonist and performer from the world of contemporary classical music, became one of the most important actors of the new European improvised music in the early 1960s.While pursuing a parallel career in classical music, he multiplied his encounters with the most active creators of the new European jazz, as well as with various foreign musicians visiting France. This album, recorded on the Futura label in 1970, was made possible thanks …
Noir
"Noir" is the first studio album of the bleakly imaginative trio Marteau Rouge (French for "Red Hammer"), consisting of Makoto Sato on drums, Jean-Marc Foussat on VSC 11 and vocals and the talented guitar player Jean-Francois Pauvros (former collaborator of proper miliar stones of noise scene such as Sonic Youth and Keiji Haino), after their brilliant live recording with legendary free-improvisational saxophone player Evan Parker, whose absence on this record gives this amazing ensemble the poss…
Watch Devil Go
* Deluxe reissue, with obi strip + 8 page booklet, 180g vinyl *To write these few lines, we spoke to saxophonist François Jeanneau, an old friend of Jacques Thollot who also played on several of his albums, including the “Watch Devil Go” which interests us here. He told us a story which, according to him, sums up the personality of Thollot. A noted studio had reserved three days for a Thollot recording session. The first morning was devoted to sound checks and putting some order in the score sh…
Mobilisation Générale: Protest and Spirit Jazz from France 1970-1976
** 2021 Stock ** 1968. France, Incorporated. The entire building was being consumed by flames and was slowly collapsing. Nothing would survive. Out of the rubble of the old world jumped the children of Marx and Coca-Cola, ripping the white and blue stripes off the French flag. Yet, the socialist revolution was more mythic than real and music did nothing to mitigate people’s behavior. It was time for innovation.
While singles from the Stones, Who, Kinks and MC5 provided an incendiary soundtrack f…
Quand Le Son Devient Aigu, Jeter La Girafe A La Mer
Souffle Continu Records present the first ever vinyl reissue of Jacques Thollot's Quand Le Son Devient Aigu, Jeter La Girafe À La Mer, originally released in 1971. While he was still just a young adolescent who had perfected his drum technique under the benevolent wing of Kenny Clarke, the Club Saint-Germain liked to present Jacques Thollot as a prodigy capable of holding his own with the famous jazz musicians who came through Paris. It was there that Eric Dolphy immediately noticed him, and fro…
Brussel Live
Highlights of their first 2 concerts in about 20 years, live in Brussels (2007-2008), shows the trio of Gilbert Artman, Jac Berrocal and Jean-Francois Pauvros anarchistic, powerful and controversial as ever. Uncertain rockers, exacerbated freejazzmen, pranksters, Jean-Francois Pauvros: guitarist, Jac Berrocal: trumpeter and vocalist, Gilbert Artman: drummer and pianist are a bit of everything, rock stomping, boring the avant garde, enraging the virtuosity. Trespassing the unbreakable with the su…
More Intra Musique
When glancing over the history of indigenous French free improvised music, there tends to be two observable categories of musicians - those who worked and collaborated with their counterparts from abroad, and those who worked independently. The former is generally more celebrated, and among those the drummer Jacques Thollot, who worked with Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, Sonny Sharrock, Sam Rivers, Joachim Kühn, and numerous others, as well as with French pioneers like Barney Wilen and Jef Gilson, rank…
Attention L'Armee
Staubgold present a reissue of Atarpop 73 & Le Collectif Le Temps Des Cerises's Attention L'Armee, originally released in 1975. 10 December 1974. 200 conscripts exited the casern of Draguignan in order to demonstrate in the streets of the city. They made part of those clandestine soldier committees multiplying themselves all over France with a view to unite the young activists of the extreme left with the anti-militarists. This dispute was a backwash of the student manifestations in spring…
Inter Frequences
Souffle Continu Records present the first ever vinyl reissue of Free Jazz Workshop's Inter Fréquences, originally released in 1973. The Free Jazz Workshop came into being in 1967 but their first album, Inter Fréquences, only appeared in 1973. Unfortunately there is no recorded trace of the group including the first drummer Pierre Guyon before he was replaced by Christian Rollet in 1970. One of the slogans doing the rounds at the time sets the tone: "Aesthetic liberation is but a prelude to the …