Lou Tavano

Various Artists - Magic Moments 9 "In The Spirit of Jazz"CD / digitalPresenting the 9th edition of ACT's popular Magic Moments series. This CD presents sixty-five minutes of the best of current jazz. Thoughtful moments sit alongside pure joy and entertainment. Coruscating energy is there, but serene contemplation too. With established ACT stars and promising newcomers, this is music for open ears, for the mind and soul. And for everyone who loves good music. “Jazz is the freedom to play anything.” At ACT, we let those words of Duke Ellington resonate through everything we do. Our releases do not adhere to a single musical canon or to a fixed sound aesthetic. Our motto is: “in the spirit of jazz.” Jazz is at the centre of our vision, because we delight in its openness to so many strands and inspirations: classical music, music from other traditions, and pop and rock. Magic Moments 9 opens with a homage straight from the heart to a person we all miss in the ACT family; the first track is a symphonic interpretation of the e.s.t. piece “From Gagarin’s Point Of View,” remembering pianist Esbjörn Svensson. “ACT seems to be on a mission to introduce the world to Europe's rising new jazz-classical pianists”, wrote John Fordham in The Guardian a couple of years ago. We have continued further along that path and Magic Moments 9 offers vivid reports from some places where that continuing journey has taken us. We take in Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, where the new duo CD by Michael Wollny and accordionist Vincent Peirani was recorded. From their album we hear “The Kiss.” Plus we travel to Austria and then to Martinique: two piano players who are both making their hugely promising debuts on the label are David Helbock and Grégory Privat. We also hear from two pianists of renown: the 'old master' Joachim Kühn is joined by his 'young lions' Eric Schaefer (drums) and Chris Jennings (bass) for a refreshing take on “Sleep on it,” a reggae-dub number by the French band Stand High Patrol. Iiro Rantala is on fine form in the “super-trio” with Lars Danielsson and Peter Erskine. They play Kenny Barron's “Voyage” with a Finnish lightness of touch. Der Tagesspiegel wrote of the “Jazz at the Berlin Philharmonic” concerts: “This is jazz history in the making”. We have released recordings of two further completely memorable evenings in one of Europe’s great halls: in “Tears for Esbjörn,” a group consisting of stars of the ACT label unite to pay homage to Esbjörn Svensson. In “Celtic Roots” we set off into the swirling mists of the North, in search of the Celtic influences on jazz. ACT is the place to hear European sounds. A good example is the new Mare Nostrum recording, seven years after the first. In the track “Kristallen den fina,” Jan Lundgren und Paolo Fresu have combined the musical hues of Sweden and of Italy, and the results are magical. For more than 20 years, Nils Landgren has been setting the agenda for European jazz like no other musician. His project “Some Other Time” also draws its inspiration from the other side of the Atlantic. He pays tribute to the great Leonard Bernstein, deploying all of the rich textural possibilities offered by the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren, with a classical string quartet honours one of the great pioneers of Swedish jazz, Jan Johansson. In “Lycklig resa” (meaning 'bon voyage'). The extraordinary encounter of the guitarists Gerardo Núñez from Spain and Ulf Wakenius from Sweden demonstrates what can happen when an intercultural musical exchange really delivers the goods. The interplay, the sense of flow generated by three Scandinavians Lars Danielsson (b), Marius Neset (sax) und Morten Lund (dr) in their album “sun blowing” is “a testament to the power of spontaneity and trust” (Irish Times) - evident in the track “Folksong.” The Finn Jukka Perkko and a new “strong and distinctively touching voice” (Jazz Magazine) from France Lou Tavano also make their mark, and contribute to the richness of the ACT label's offering of characterful European sounds. Magic Moments 9, packed with all kinds of excitement and emotion, not only captures an up-to-the-minute snapshot of European jazz in the many different forms it exists today, but also offers a glimpse into its future.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Lou Tavano - For YouCD / digital Lou Tavano vocals Alexey Asantcheeff piano, spoken word in Russian Arno de Casanove trumpet, flugelhorn Maxime Berton soprano & tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, alto flute Alexandre Perrot acoustic bass Ariel Tessier drums Background vocals and percussions performed by Lou Tavano & her musicians France’s new singing hope: Vocal jazz with edge, depth and that certain je ne sais quoi. She is the new vocal-jazz sensation in a Paris scene already filled with inspiring names. Now at the age of 29 years, Lou Tavano is bringing out her first album, an oeuvre that will cause just as much of a stir as her fiery-red mane of hair. Despite its simplicity and apparent unambiguousness, the title of her debut ACT album “For You” has many dimensions. It is coined for everyone, and yet for one person in particular. For everyone because this young artist’s singing, which takes its inspiration from within, is directed to the outside and demands to be heard. For one, because this is the fruit of a collaboration of many years with the pianist Alexey Asantcheeff, who stands at Tavano’s side in the Parisian music milieu. He is the author of most of the themes and tracks on the album, and of the eminently nuanced and detailed arrangements that envelope the singer’s enigmatic and profound timbre like a tailor-made cloak. Tavano and Asantcheeff met over Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll”: she, the daughter of a rock drummer, who grew up with classical piano before finding her musical home in vocals, he, the son of a Scottish mother and a Belarussian father, whose playing is steeped in Slavic melancholy. When Asantcheeff heard Tavano’s sing and how she interpreted the well-known jazz standard, he couldn’t get one thought out of his head: “…the world has to hear this voice!” Both were hardly twenty when they made music the realm of their artistic collaboration and decided to walk the jazz path together that was built on their personal influences, from symphonic music, lyrical vocals, jazz and folk, all the way through to the French chanson tradition and Balinese music. Working with a top-class band peppered with young talents from Paris, Tavano and Asantcheeff defined their repertoire down to the smallest detail. With every concert their songs gained maturity, and had the colour and life of jazz breathed into them. Tavano’s extraordinary talent soon became obvious: the ability to create a musical universe in which words carry just as much weight as notes. “I can’t make music without words,” she admits. She gives very special meaning to everything she sings, found in the resonance of her own personal history, but without limiting her lyrics to the autobiographical. Even if the words always come second when composing a song – “It is always the music that awakens the story to life” – they are first when it comes to the expression. Every song has a story in it somewhere, every track a dedication, whether it lies on the surface for everyone to see, or hidden waiting to be discovered. So it comes as no surprise that the Tavano’s influences can not only be found on the map of jazz. They take her craft on the first leg of its journey, but at a respectful distance – for instance in her version of “Afro Blue”, which transports her to Bali. Alongside “interpretation role-models” like Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, Tavano invokes a wide range of personalities: Joni Mitchell “for the way she tells a story”, Tracy Chapman “especially for her flow and way of presenting lyrics”, or Jacques Brel, who “can expose exactly the part of something he wants seen.” “For me there is no such thing as singing technique,” says Tavano, although she herself has no lack of it. “If the interpretation is right, the voice follows. It is an experience that never loses its fascination, when what you feel matches what you express.”Credits:Music & lyrics by Alexey Asantcheeff & Lou Tavano, unless otherwise noted All songs arranged by Alexey Asantcheeff, except “The Letter” by the whole band, “Afro Blue” by Alexey Asantcheeff and Lou Tavano, and “The Call” by Arno de Casanove Recorded at Studio de Meudon, July 2015 Engineered by Philippe Teissier du Cros, assisted by Clément Gariel Mixed by Philippe Teissier du Cros at Studio Boxson (Paris) Mastered by Raphaël Jonin at Jraphing (Bois-Colombes) Produced by Sébastien Vidal Executive Producer: Onde Libre