Let me state without equivocation that I am not, on any level, a jazz guy. I don't listen to this long standing art form all that much. I don't know the ins and outs. I am not well versed in the many aspects of different jazz theories. I don't steep myself in the world of negative harmonies, pitch collections or 7th chord constructions (at least not on purpose) but I do know what I like and I like "September Nine" by the French jazz and alternative musical outfit Julien Daïan Quintet. I like it a lot. The track is from their 3rd album "CUT-UP" were front man Julein Daïan steers the group through a collision of jazz with hip hop, electronica, tribal rhythms, reggae flourishes and more.
"September Nine" feels like a dance in the rain and trying not to get wet one minute and gleefully getting drenched the next. There are moments that feel broadly like 40's standards and other moments that push into dissonant places. Horns parting the curtains for amazing walking bass lines that literally encircle and pass through a rabid sax solo. The jubilation here is heady, intoxicating and the ramping up and down cadence fueled by brilliant feral drumming takes you on a ride. Those dry and wet moments coincide many times over. It is hypnotic stuff whether you are a jazz aficionado or not. It doesn't matter. Step, no stomp in the puddles. Splash around.
Composer by Julien Daïan. Tommaso Montagnani (bass guitar), Octave Ducasse (drums), Cyril Benhamou (flute), Edouard Monnin (piano), Julien Daïan (saxophone) and featured artist, Alex Tassel (trumpet).
-Robb Donker Curtius
CUT UP, is the third album from the Julien Daian Quintet (JDQ), led, of course, by Julien Daian, the audacious, reckless innovator who earned his stripes as the maverick of French Jazz. Incapable of compromise as he creates music of its time and place with the vocabulary of his own lived experience. Known for bringing Jazz into uncharted waters in collusion with Hip Hop forms, heavy electronic beats and hypnotic tribal rhythms.
Picking up the vibe and momentum of JDQ’s first two albums French Paradox and Behind the Reef, the ten tracks on CUT UP really break new ground, taking this vision, this compulsion to greater heights and ever deeper depths. This isn’t about fusion, it never was. The mastery lies in Daian’s supreme ability at divining the natural points of confluence between forms, where jazz, hip hop, dub and electronica merge naturally, creating a sound and a vibe that speaks eloquently of the moment it comes into being. Each track is a unique and vivid expression, an episode in an album that forms, as a whole, a varied and provocative freefall soundscape. A deeply personal patchwork, a montage drawn from influences and experience, of emotions and memories, of landscapes and longings.
Summoning a deeply sunny reggae vibe, through Jazz themed progressions, Daian remembers the Patate Records 45’s of his youth, bringing in Luciano and Mikey General on vocals to crystalize the magic on Bring Some Love, a call to the good times yet to come, an irrepressible expression of hope and the power of unity. While Everybody Love me is straight up and down Jazz informed Hip Hop (think New York with a Spike Lee twist) as North Carolinan Rapper Biship Chasten keeps the groove going against a sparse, edgy backdrop.
In the album’s debut single Trop C’est Trop (Too Much is Too Much) the spirit of Serge Gainsbourg is brought into play as his vocal from Ecce homo et caetera is woven through an urban smokescreen of ever intensifying mood and syncopation, and you just know he would have loved it beyond doubt. Right on the edge, an unstoppable, shuffling groove, a hint of a cult 70’s detective theme perhaps? Layer by layer, beat by beat, the menace moves forward as a tribal chorus illuminates the shadows it casts. A sound that could just as easily send the listener on an unknown highway as to the dance floor.
Julien Daïan Quintet, JDQ, jazz, hybrid jazz, hip hop, electronica, collusion, blending tones, innovator, French jazz, alternative artist, new album "CUT UP", "September Nine",
"September Nine" feels like a dance in the rain and trying not to get wet one minute and gleefully getting drenched the next. There are moments that feel broadly like 40's standards and other moments that push into dissonant places. Horns parting the curtains for amazing walking bass lines that literally encircle and pass through a rabid sax solo. The jubilation here is heady, intoxicating and the ramping up and down cadence fueled by brilliant feral drumming takes you on a ride. Those dry and wet moments coincide many times over. It is hypnotic stuff whether you are a jazz aficionado or not. It doesn't matter. Step, no stomp in the puddles. Splash around.
Composer by Julien Daïan. Tommaso Montagnani (bass guitar), Octave Ducasse (drums), Cyril Benhamou (flute), Edouard Monnin (piano), Julien Daïan (saxophone) and featured artist, Alex Tassel (trumpet).
-Robb Donker Curtius
CUT UP, is the third album from the Julien Daian Quintet (JDQ), led, of course, by Julien Daian, the audacious, reckless innovator who earned his stripes as the maverick of French Jazz. Incapable of compromise as he creates music of its time and place with the vocabulary of his own lived experience. Known for bringing Jazz into uncharted waters in collusion with Hip Hop forms, heavy electronic beats and hypnotic tribal rhythms.
Picking up the vibe and momentum of JDQ’s first two albums French Paradox and Behind the Reef, the ten tracks on CUT UP really break new ground, taking this vision, this compulsion to greater heights and ever deeper depths. This isn’t about fusion, it never was. The mastery lies in Daian’s supreme ability at divining the natural points of confluence between forms, where jazz, hip hop, dub and electronica merge naturally, creating a sound and a vibe that speaks eloquently of the moment it comes into being. Each track is a unique and vivid expression, an episode in an album that forms, as a whole, a varied and provocative freefall soundscape. A deeply personal patchwork, a montage drawn from influences and experience, of emotions and memories, of landscapes and longings.
Summoning a deeply sunny reggae vibe, through Jazz themed progressions, Daian remembers the Patate Records 45’s of his youth, bringing in Luciano and Mikey General on vocals to crystalize the magic on Bring Some Love, a call to the good times yet to come, an irrepressible expression of hope and the power of unity. While Everybody Love me is straight up and down Jazz informed Hip Hop (think New York with a Spike Lee twist) as North Carolinan Rapper Biship Chasten keeps the groove going against a sparse, edgy backdrop.
In the album’s debut single Trop C’est Trop (Too Much is Too Much) the spirit of Serge Gainsbourg is brought into play as his vocal from Ecce homo et caetera is woven through an urban smokescreen of ever intensifying mood and syncopation, and you just know he would have loved it beyond doubt. Right on the edge, an unstoppable, shuffling groove, a hint of a cult 70’s detective theme perhaps? Layer by layer, beat by beat, the menace moves forward as a tribal chorus illuminates the shadows it casts. A sound that could just as easily send the listener on an unknown highway as to the dance floor.
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