CONFLUENCE – 4 Voyages (LP-1976)

Label: RCA Victor – FPL1 0132

Series: Balance

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1976

Style: Avantgarde, Fusion, Free Improvisation

A1 + B - Recorded live on January 25, 1976 at the Festival de Villejuif

A2 - Recorded live on 20 December, 1975 at the Nouveau Carré à Paris

Photo: Richard Bonin and Thierry Trombert

Production by – Confluence

Sound recording by – Alain François

A1 - Dakka .............................................................................. 5:25

         (Written-By – Armand Lemal)

A2 - Convergences ................................................................ 11:50

         (Written-By – Jean-Charles Capon)

B  -  4 Voyages ...................................................................... 19:00

         (Written-By – Didier Levallet)

Jean-Charles Capon - cello (violoncello)

Didier Levallet - contrabass

Jean Querlier - oboe (hautbois), cor Anglais, flute, alto / soprano saxophone

Christian Escoudé - guitar

Armand Lemal - percussion

Merzak Mouthana – drums, percussion

Quietly gorgeous French jazzy prog vinyl made up of three long (dark, anxious, yet rhythmic and beautiful) tracks, often focused around the wistful cello work of Jean-Francois Capon (cello), whose devastating outfit Baroque Jazz Trio recently had their one eponymous album reissued, and his colleagues Didier Levallet (contrabass) and Armand Lemal (percussion). There are also Christian Escoudé (guitar), Jean Querlier (oboe, flute, saxophones) and Merzak Mouthana (drums).

One of France's great undiscovered treasures. 

The band recorded three albums (one of the few groups of French Jazz at this time to record for a major label, RCA), and this LP, live recording on January 25, 1976 at the Festival de Villejuif and 20 December 1975 at the Nouveau Carré à Paris, it is their debut.

I would say that it is actually chamber jazz, with a very well worked melding of chamber orchestra (a lot of violin, flute, cello, double bass) and jazz.

These progressive musicians wrote a kind of music that has no rules, they use rock, jazz, and european classical in equal measure to create a whole that is perfectly harmonious and has no borders or styles...

NOTE:

Didier Levallet, born 19 July 1944, Arcy sur Cure, France. Levallet is largely a self-taught bass player who studied journalism at L’Ecole Superieure de Journalisme de Lille (1963-66) and went on for a short time to study bass at Lille Conservatory. He moved to Paris in 1969 and played with a wide range of local and visiting musicians including Ted Curson, Hank Mobley, Mal Waldron and Johnny Griffin. He worked with the free-jazz quartet Perception through the 70s and worked in the USA with tenor saxophonist Byard Lancaster (1974-76). He also led "Confluence" (with: Jean-Charles Capon and Christian Escoudé), a group based on strings and percussion only. In the early 80s he played with Frank Lowe, Archie Shepp, Mike Westbrook’s Concert Band and Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath as well as the Double Quartet with Tony Oxley. Levallet is a prolific composer who can combine free-improvisation and structure coherently. He works within four bands - the Quintet, a 12-piece band, Swing Strings System (which utilises seven string players plus drums) and a trio with Dominique Pifarely (violin) and Gérard Marais (guitar). In 1976, he founded ADMI (Association pour la Developement de la Musique Improvise), which acts as a pressure group and concert organizer. He teaches jazz at L’Ecole National de Musique in Angouleme.

If you find it, buy this album!