Sunday, August 2, 2015

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!

10 comments:

  1. CONFLUENCE – 4 Voyages (LP-1976)
    Vinyl Rip/FLAC+Artwork

    1fichier:
    https://1fichier.com/?2694kn9fuq

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chiquilicuatre y ZappaAugust 3, 2015 at 9:50 AM

    many thanks

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  3. excellent work, as usual , Vitko
    thanks
    Artemis

    ReplyDelete
  4. Really nice album and a beautiful treatment of yours. Thank You. Dear Vitko, by the way. Do you have received my mail from July 28th. I*m not sure if my email account works fine. Had some difficulties through the last weeks.

    Uwe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Uwe,
      it's all right, soon I will contact you. I took a dozen days holiday and went to the sea. I'll be back for several days.
      All the best. V

      Delete
  5. Wow...haven't seen this since the beat up LP I had when I was a kid.

    ReplyDelete
  6. wonderful turn-on...thank you Vitko...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Could you please re-upload this album?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi, would anyone happen to have this in FLAC? Thanks

    ReplyDelete