Renaud Garcia-Fons
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Renaud Garcia-Fons

Blue Maqam

As is often the case in the double bassist's world, the cultures of the Mediterranean rim are given pride of place, but the route also crosses Persia, and more unexpectedly, Ireland, insularity obliges! “Blue Maqam” features eight sung languages, a little Babel, where Renaud and Solea's lyrics evoke haiku-like emotional landscapes.

At the heart of the music is the double bass/voice combination of Solea Garcia-Fons, a first since it's her daughter, but also because singing has long been absent from her universe. And here, Stéphan Caracci 's vibraphone, with Jean-Luc Di Fraya's percussion, draws a canvas conducive to Garcia-Fons' flights of fancy. The double bassist is one of the magicians of today's jazz scene, one of its most captivating ambassadors. The instrumentalist is one of those who have regularly taken the river out of its bed, diverting the language of jazz to sublimate it with the scent of distant fragrances. The expressiveness of his playing comes as a surprise to those familiar with the instrument's usual range, here with a fifth string in the treble; an unsuspected orchestral world emerges under his nimble, mischievous fingers.

The whole sounds like an audacious universalist plea, as the clouds threaten to roll in.