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![Double Screening]( "Double Screening")
Emile Parisien
Emile Parisien
Double Screening
VÖ: 25.01.2019
Genre: Saxophone Jazz, French Jazz, Zeitgenössischer Jazz
„There is no doubt no other European musician who is as popular as the soprano saxophonist Émile Parisien and with "Double Screening" he is at the top of his game.“-Paris Move
Emile Parisien / soprano & tenor sax
Julien Touéry / piano
Ivan Gélugne / bass
Julien Loutelier / drums
Recorded and mixed by Philippe Teissier Du Cros at Studio Gil Evans de La Maison de la Culture, Amiens (France), December 2017 Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann
There probably isn’t another jazz musician anywhere in Europe receiving as much acclaim at the moment as French soprano saxophonist Emile Parisien. The concert recording "Sfumato Live in Marciac" (CD and DVD), with Joachim Kühn at the piano, plus guests Michel Portal, Vincent Peirani and Wynton Marsalis, was released in 2018 and was greeted with rapturous enthusiasm: "An outstanding voice in contemporary jazz", remarked ARD Parisien, and with good reason. Arte Metropolis discerned a "magician on the saxophone", The Times of London called him "Europe's leading soprano saxophonist," and for Der Spiegel, it was "a pleasure to watch Emile Parisien perform his great art". In the US, Downbeat Magazine even considered it an understatement to limit Parisien’s importance to the sphere of European jazz, while Rolling Stone magazine confirmed him not only as perhaps the best saxophonist of his generation but also as the leader one of today's most impressive bands. And this is just a sample from many such plaudits...
So it is not overstating the case to describe Parisien as an artist who is setting the direction for his instrument. In the years since Sidney Bechet, John Coltrane and Steve Lacy, no player has devoted him- or herself to the soprano saxophone as intensively or with such a propensity to innovate. No one has brought out the vital, incisive, exotic, vibrato-rich tone of the instrument with such ease, and also recalibrated it and placed it at the centre of wholly new concepts.
Parisien's new album "Double Screening" marks a return to the quartet format, and combines all of the qualities of this exceptional musician. Parisien lets jazz shine through in a way that is inimitable: he poses questions, he elaborates, he finds new answers and new ways to re-define the old. It can be visionary; it is also joyous.
Parisien is increasingly integrating elements from his homeland as he creates a whirling mix of chanson with contemporary classical music, and also with French and North African folklore. His playing radiates improvisational dynamism and originality.
He stacks up the ideas at a fast pace but concentrates on making his lines readily comprehensible to the listener. He doesn't have to overwork any single motif, because they come to him so thick and fast. He never goes the simple route, and yet the compositions, which are all by him or the band members, have rousing energy, demanding arcs of concentration, and astonishing stringency. These organized jollifications are full of unexpected feints and sudden twists and turns. The boundaries between composition and improvisation are cast to one side. The superb way in which these band members communicate with each other and avoid any sense routine is a joy to experience. This jazz is fresh, frantic and original; and it calls out for all the superlatives.
Emile Parisien's prodigious gifts as an instrumentalist are in no doubt; in fact, it is not something he ever needs to prove. When he traverses into expressive free jazz areas, then rushes through tricky melody lines at top speed, lingers over complex ideas, or makes the soprano saxophone sound for a while like a Japanese Shakuhachi flute, it always has the purpose of serving the art. And there again, it's not about just the soloist either, but rather the band which instinctively, almost dreamily steers a course between the succinct and the emotionally honest, jumping out of the rough and immediately landing in the smooth. The music is built with precision, and yet it is full of spaces for individual spontaneity. This is new European jazz that is aware of its traditions, but can also depart from them to break new ground: it’s furious, it’s virtuoso and never ceases to take the emotions by surprise.
Emile Parisien / soprano & tenor sax
Julien Touéry / piano
Ivan Gélugne / bass
Julien Loutelier / drums
Recorded and mixed by Philippe Teissier Du Cros at Studio Gil Evans de La Maison de la Culture, Amiens (France), December 2017 Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann
There probably isn’t another jazz musician anywhere in Europe receiving as much acclaim at the moment as French soprano saxophonist Emile Parisien. The concert recording "Sfumato Live in Marciac" (CD and DVD), with Joachim Kühn at the piano, plus guests Michel Portal, Vincent Peirani and Wynton Marsalis, was released in 2018 and was greeted with rapturous enthusiasm: "An outstanding voice in contemporary jazz", remarked ARD Parisien, and with good reason. Arte Metropolis discerned a "magician on the saxophone", The Times of London called him "Europe's leading soprano saxophonist," and for Der Spiegel, it was "a pleasure to watch Emile Parisien perform his great art". In the US, Downbeat Magazine even considered it an understatement to limit Parisien’s importance to the sphere of European jazz, while Rolling Stone magazine confirmed him not only as perhaps the best saxophonist of his generation but also as the leader one of today's most impressive bands. And this is just a sample from many such plaudits...
So it is not overstating the case to describe Parisien as an artist who is setting the direction for his instrument. In the years since Sidney Bechet, John Coltrane and Steve Lacy, no player has devoted him- or herself to the soprano saxophone as intensively or with such a propensity to innovate. No one has brought out the vital, incisive, exotic, vibrato-rich tone of the instrument with such ease, and also recalibrated it and placed it at the centre of wholly new concepts.
Parisien's new album "Double Screening" marks a return to the quartet format, and combines all of the qualities of this exceptional musician. Parisien lets jazz shine through in a way that is inimitable: he poses questions, he elaborates, he finds new answers and new ways to re-define the old. It can be visionary; it is also joyous.
Parisien is increasingly integrating elements from his homeland as he creates a whirling mix of chanson with contemporary classical music, and also with French and North African folklore. His playing radiates improvisational dynamism and originality.
He stacks up the ideas at a fast pace but concentrates on making his lines readily comprehensible to the listener. He doesn't have to overwork any single motif, because they come to him so thick and fast. He never goes the simple route, and yet the compositions, which are all by him or the band members, have rousing energy, demanding arcs of concentration, and astonishing stringency. These organized jollifications are full of unexpected feints and sudden twists and turns. The boundaries between composition and improvisation are cast to one side. The superb way in which these band members communicate with each other and avoid any sense routine is a joy to experience. This jazz is fresh, frantic and original; and it calls out for all the superlatives.
Emile Parisien's prodigious gifts as an instrumentalist are in no doubt; in fact, it is not something he ever needs to prove. When he traverses into expressive free jazz areas, then rushes through tricky melody lines at top speed, lingers over complex ideas, or makes the soprano saxophone sound for a while like a Japanese Shakuhachi flute, it always has the purpose of serving the art. And there again, it's not about just the soloist either, but rather the band which instinctively, almost dreamily steers a course between the succinct and the emotionally honest, jumping out of the rough and immediately landing in the smooth. The music is built with precision, and yet it is full of spaces for individual spontaneity. This is new European jazz that is aware of its traditions, but can also depart from them to break new ground: it’s furious, it’s virtuoso and never ceases to take the emotions by surprise.
Emile Parisien
Vital, curious and progressive, the French scene is setting important milestones for the development of contemporary European jazz. Despite all its openness to musical cultures, genres and currents, it has never lost its grip on the ground.Progress on the feet of its own tradition characterises France's jazz and the saxophonist Emile Parisien is one of its protagonists: a jazz visionary with one foot in the past and his gaze far ahead. This makes him the "best newcomer to European jazz in a long time" (Le Monde), who should be given "undivided attention" (Norddeutscher Rundfunk). Parisien's musical coordinates are broadly defined, from the folkloric tradition of his homeland to the compositional strategies of new music to the melodic and harmonic abstraction of free jazz. The special quality of this broad musical field lies in the naturalness with which it is explored. Nothing in Parisien's music seems calculated or forced. Instead, the genre characteristics flow into one another in his music in an unstrained, light-hearted way and without conceptual protection.The result sounds furious and is great listening fun in many facets: from provocative-anarchic to rousing-swinging. Anyone who has ever experienced the lively Frenchman live on stage knows that he lives jazz with heart and soul. Authenticity and honesty resonate in every note. Awards were not long in coming: Parisien was awarded the two most important jazz prizes in France, the "Prix Django Reinhard 2012" and the "Victoires du Jazz 2014", as Artist of the Year. In Germany, he received the ECHO Jazz 2015 in the category "Best International Ensemble", for the rousing duo with his musical alter ego and close friend, the accordionist Vincent Peirani.
Emile Parisien
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