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« Ellington landmark sparkles » par The Denver Post
Catégories : Article de presse ( Article de presse )This is the most important jazz release yet from Milan. « Black, Brown & Beige » has long been one of my favourite Duke Ellington compositions, despite the lukewarm appraisal of some critics. The Duke used it to inaugurate his historic series of Carnegie Hall concerts in 1943, an epochal event in winning respectability for jazz. His later studio recordings of it date from 1944-45 and 1958. Divides into « Black, Brown & Beige » sections, the suite was Ellington’s attempt to portray the history of black Americans in music. French pianist/arranger Bolling has orchestrated what may be the most complete version ever, including his own finale reprising the « Work Song », « Come Sunday » and « Sugar Hill » themes. Blessed by the Duke’s son Mercer, this 43-minute CD is most notable for the quality of the Bolling big band. There may be no Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Cat Anderson or Ray Nance, but the French jazzmen play passionately, with a real feel for the idiom. Violinist Patrice Fonta [...]
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« Jazz and classics good mix for Bolling » par Lincoln Journal
Catégories : Article de presse ( Article de presse )Perhaps no one has so effortlessly and consistently crossed the line between jazz and classical music as French pianist-composer Claude Bolling. His first crossover hit was “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano”, which he wrote for flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal. The record won Bolling a Grammy award and has sold nearly 2 million copies since its 1974 release. Last month it was reissued on Frémeaux/City Hall Records along with two other early Bolling collaborations with violinist Pinchas Zuckerman and guitarist Alexandre Lagoya. But Bolling is not content to rest on his considerable laurels. He also has three new releases this year. “First Class” is a pure jazz outing pairing Bolling’s 16-piece big band and legendary violinist Stephane Grappelli on great American standards. “The new thing with this is that Stephane had never played and recorded with a brass big band”, Bolling said. “He is the best jazz violinist of all time.” “Cross Over USA” reunites the pianist and Rampal for a collection [...]
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« A true delight » par Blues & Rythm Magazine
Catégories : Article de presse ( Article de presse )Cœur De Chauffe is a band under the leadership of Gérard Tarquin, clarinettist with the famed French jazz band, Les Haricots Rouges. M. Tarquin was born in Paris in 1943 and is of Créole ancestry, his father having moved to the French capital from Martinique in the French Antilles in 1930. He grew up in a Caribbean environment and was taught clarinet by Eugène Delouche, a veteran of Paris’s West Indian dances, who also encouraged Gérard’s pride in this heritage. At the beginning of the sixties, Tarquin began playing jazz – though with the style of Sidney Bechet as his first lesson, those Créole roots were never far away, and he would often introduce one or two biguines in the band’s sets. It was long his dream though to have a full band and an album of Martiniquan music, and that dream is brought to fruition with Coeur De Chauffe and this wonderful, flowing CD. The subtitle of this release is “Biguines & Mazurkas Créoles Today”, although both the mazurka and biguines can be found [...]
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« An excellent survey of the European swing era » par Jazz Journal
Catégories : Article de presse ( Article de presse )This may not be a truly representative survey of big band swing in Europe but it is certainly an entertaining and thought-provoking collection. The compilers admit in the accompanying booklet that they were dependant on finding good quality (musically and sonically) 78s which ruled out, for example, Finland, Hungary and Austria where there were active swing bands but minimal recording. Otherwise, all the major European countries, including some Eastern European ones, are covered with an understandable emphasis on Belgium, England, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and France (over three-quarters of the contents). Most of the music is derivative of American models and it can be fun to make the links. After the early flirtation with Paul Witheman (Jack Hylton’s 1933 opening track is typical), Benny Goodman was the dominant influence throughout Europe, until Count Basie began to make his mark (particularly in France and Sweden) from the end of WWII. There is little to be heard of Duke E [...]
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« Don’t miss this opportunity » par Rapport
Catégories : Article de presse ( Article de presse )♦♦♦♦ If anything substantiates what a great composer Duke Ellington was, this recording should do it. Black, Brown and Beige was a suite of such magnitude that it was acclaimed from the first night it was presented in January 1943 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. According to the liner notes, son Mercer says that The Duke only performed it completely two times in his lifetime, the one at Carnegie Hall the first. But tunes from the suite – Come Sunday and Work Song, for example – have been performed by his orchestra countless times. No matter that. Considering that the live performance in 1943 is recorded – and in an often muddy fashion obviously not originally meant for public consumption – yet now on the market, getting it whole in super high CD fidelity and with an orchestra so perfectly in tune with the music and spirit of The Duke is very special indeed. Ellington wrote his music with his band members in mind but here translated into the hands of Bolling’s personnel it certainly s [...]
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« I give this Bolling masterpiece my unqualified, one-hundred-per-cent approval
Catégories : Article de presse ( Article de presse )Now, if I never listen to another record, or never be constrained to pen another line in either disapproval or approbation, I give this Claude Bolling masterpiece my unqualified, one-hundred-per-cent approval. This is essential, but essential listening; ageless music by jazz’s greatest past master has been brought to shimmering reality by a musician whose combined qualities of practical brilliance, towering professionalism and horizon-less versatility are surely unique in the world of jazz music today. Ken RATTENBURY – CRESCENDO MAGAZINE
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« Un des meilleurs professionnels du grand orchestre » par Télérama
Catégories : Article de presse ( Article de presse )Serait-on injuste, en France, avec Claude Bolling ? On en parle rarement et quand on le chronique, c’est le plus souvent avec une sorte de paternalisme un peu agaçant. Pourtant Bolling est l’un des meilleurs professionnels du grand orchestre dans la tradition du middle-jazz. Tout est admirablement mis en place. Si le bât blesse quelque part, c’est peut-être justement dans sa fidélité à ses modèles, Basie ou Ellington : on ne trouve pas toujours ce qui pourrait créer la marque Claude Bolling. Il n’empêche que l’ensemble swingue avec bonheur, que la sincérité du chef comme des solistes ne fait pas de doute et qu’on aimerait que tous les jazzmen français soient aussi convaincants. Où il réussit à nous surprendre, c’est en nous présentant un des meilleurs comédiens de sa génération, Guy Marchand, comme chanteur de son orchestre. Quelques standards, de On The Sunny Side Of The Street à I Cover The Waterfront en passant par Some Of These Days, sont repris par Guy Marchand avec une maîtr [...]
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« Un jalon essentiel de la musique afro-américaine » par Télérama
Catégories : Article de presse ( Article de presse )Avec beaucoup de respect, Bolling reprend la partition originale de Black, Brown And Beige, cette longue pièce d’Ellington traçant un portrait des Noirs aux Etats-Unis. Jamais enregistrée par Ellington, nous avons, grâce à Claude Bolling, une trace enregistrée de ce qui, aujourd’hui, apparaît comme un jalon essentiel de la musique afro-américaine au sein de toute la musique occidentale. Jean WAGNER - TELERAMA