Schwarz-Bart among his peers
If he was a very good diver at a young age, Jacques Schwarz-Bart would also have made an excellent judoka. The saxophonist seems to be the king of dodging, as if the creative process of the artist required an imperious need for hindsight. No wonder when we know the eminently intellectual personality of the person concerned.
From Jacques Schwarz-Bart, we generally know the Caribbean projects: “Soné Ka La”, “Abyss” and “Jazz Racine Haiti”. We sometimes know his story: only son – and prodigy – of the writers André and Simone Schwarz-Bart, who, discovering the saxophone at 24, planted a promising career in the high public service to study at the prestigious Berklee music school. . Regularly hailed by the general and specialized press, from Le Monde to Jazz Mag, he is the winner with “The Harlem Suite”, a retrospective album that gives us the opportunity to look back on the musician’s New York debut.
After settling in New York in 1996, he settled in 1998 in Harlem, a multi-ethnic neighborhood in which Guadeloupeans are like a fish in water, as recounted in 2006 by Francis Marmande in the article Brother Jacques in the New York Barrio. It wasn’t until twenty years later, after moving to Boston for an associate professorship at Berklee, that he decided to dedicate an album to his old neighborhood.
“The Harlem Suite” is a dive into new roots, those of his adopted homeland: jazz. In particular the neo-soul movement that he embraced at the turn of the 2000s following decisive encounters.
The starting point for the story was this mind-blowing anecdote that happened during a concert bringing together Roy Hargrove and Chucho Valdés. As pianist Bruce Flowers, guessing his comrade’s intentions, warns him with “Don’t do that, you’ll burn yourself on the circuit”, Schwarz-Bart brandishes his instrument. Hargrove who takes him for a relative of Chucho (while Chucho thinks he was a friend of Roy), beckons him to go on stage. The young saxophonist snatches from the public an ovation. Two weeks later, he went on tour with the star trumpeter.
In 2000, D’Angello called on him for the Voodoo tour. And entrusts him with the brass section. It is to him that he owes the nickname of Brother Jacques, a reference to the nursery rhyme which allows him to avoid a hazardous pronunciation. He would work with Meshell Ndegeocello before becoming a driving force behind Hargrove’s RH Factor project with Stephanie Mckay’s single Forget Regret.
The sequel, we know it: After having recorded Jazz Ka Philosophy with Franck Nicolas and Rhizome by Mario Canonge, Schwarz-Bart becomes one of the pillars of Creole jazz with a spiritual music that has its roots in the Caribbean by merging with gwoka Guadeloupe, Haitian voodoo or Cuban santeria (the never-recorded project Creole Spirit with Omar Sosa). The American uncle remains close to his diaspora and to the French public.
“The Harlem Suite” traces those nearly 20 years spent in Harlem. A self-portrait made up of compositions written over the years, which he consolidated by constituting the subject of a course he gives to his students. A grant from Live Arts Boston will give him the opportunity to turn it into a recording project.
In “The Harlem Suite”, after an enjoyable chase after the sun, Jacques Schwarz-Bart anchors his own history in that of jazz, following in the footsteps of the greats: John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, and of course, says the saxophonist, “the one who saved him”: Roy Hargrove. DNA is never far away with Schwarz-Bart, the musician offers himself an Afro-Caribbean escape, identifies his career with that of African-Americans before a surprising stranding between shadow and light, performed with his brilliant compatriots Privat and Dolmen.
With “The Harlem Suite”, would JSB get closer to his idols? Undoubtedly since the saxophonist was rewarded with a file searched by the famous Downbeat Magazine. Let’s not spoil our pleasure: It is not so common to see the name of a French musician, moreover from overseas, on the cover of one of the most prestigious magazines in the world of jazz.
Ricardo Izquierdo, roots and heart
Ask Cuban saxophonist Ricardo Izquierdo why he doesn’t play his country’s music, his answer will always be the same: His thing is jazz.
Living in France for twenty-five years, Ricardo is a fulfilled musician. Sideman solicited and appreciated, he has the luxury of choosing his projects. We were able to applaud him recently in the ANTS project or in the obviously formidable Quint’Up by Mario Canonge and Michel Zenino.
After “Ida”, a first album as a leader released in 2014, the musician surprises his world with a second opus, “Kikun P?lu Mi Wá”, a Yoruba title which means “Painting with his roots”, quite a program.
If it is not Cuban in form, the disc is in substance, a deep and spiritual work whose fluidity and freedom challenge. No offense to aficionados, “Kikun P?lu Mi Wá” is a jazz album, even if from Cuba we will notice two or three references here and there, a few batá drums and an abakuá song. As in the Santeria, the Orishas hide behind the titles. Because it was religion and his childhood in Matanzas that inspired his author after a “long process of exploring his heritage. »
Ricardo Izquierdo moved to France in 2001, coming out of Carlos Maza’s orchestra. A few years earlier, the saxophonist had studied at Diakara with his mentor Oscar Valdés. From his 3rd year at the E.N.A (Escuela Nacional de Artes), a must for the big names in Cuban music, the young Ricardo spent his evenings playing with his elders a repertoire between jazz and popular music, forcing him to work late at night to graduate. It was in the army that he fell into the cauldron of jazz. During his two years of military service in Vedado, he sneaks out every night to play in the neighborhood clubs.
His musical roots are found in Matanzas. Matanzas, home of the famous folk group Los Munequitos, of the composer José White, of the inventor of the danzon Miguel Faílde or even of the king of the mambo Dámaso Pérez Prado. Matanzas is a musical city in which Ricardo bathed all his childhood thanks to a saxophonist stepfather in a big band orchestra of traditional music. He grew up in a profoundly artistic environment in the popular district of La Marina, near the Pueblo Nuevo district where the Abakua, an influential Afro-Cuban brotherhood (including in traditional music through percussion). Of “Kikun P?lu Mi Wá”, Ricardo will say: “It was Matanzas that infused in me. »
The saxophonist cast musicians he knew well: Sergio Cruz (piano), Fabrice Moreau (drums), Gildas Boclé and Juan Sebastian Jimenez (double bass) and Javier Cambos (percussion). They follow him unreservedly in the adventure.
After an impeccable start driven by a lively Dragonfly, it is the third track entitled Autour du jardin, which will give the real kick-off. An image that perfectly suits the album. Imagine finding yourself at the Chaumont-Sur-Loire festival, but in a lush and tropical version.
Each track is a free and experimental garden in which we constantly change direction according to discoveries and encounters, a zumzum here, a babalao there. And it is the title Pa’Aggayu which, perhaps, is the apogee. Not so sure, because the saxophonist perfectly masters the art of time dilation and space compression. You come out of there confused, stunned by so much abundance, just remembering having made an extraordinary journey.
The release, a few weeks apart, of “The Harlem Suite” and “Kikun P?lu Mi Wá”, offers us very different proposals from the two saxophonists. However, the works have many points in common: two retrospective discs, two discs that were not expected, two discs that will undoubtedly mark the careers of their authors.
