Back
![Let Them Cook]( "Let Them Cook")
Emile Parisien
Emile Parisien
Let Them Cook
VÖ: 29.02.2024
Genre: Saxophone Jazz, French Jazz
Emile Parisien / soprano saxophone & effects
Julien Touéry / piano
Ivan Gélugne / double bass
Julien Loutelier / drums & electronics
produced by the artists
the art in music: cover art "SMILE! VI" by Jiri Geller
When accidents happen, they are normally over in seconds, sometimes minutes; this one has been going on for 20 years. It is two decades since the members of Emile Parisien’s quartet played a jam session together. At the end, they looked at each other in disbelief. They had not just been hit by a collective musical thunderbolt, they also knew they had just brought...well...something...into being. The common ground between them was jazz, but each had all kinds of seeds to sow in it, from classical music and contemporary sounds to rock, electronica and chanson. Saxofonist Emile Parisien, Pianist Julien Touéry, Bassist Ivan Gélugne and drummer Julien Loutelier rip up labels, break down barriers, upset codes, and yet they know exactly where they are headed. There is a shared obsession with narrative. “The central axis of the quartet has always been storytelling,” Parisien emphasizes.
“Let Them Cook” is like a breath of fresh air, and with a band sound now firmly and unmistakably of 2024 rather than 2004. There was a particular turning point: at a concert in Sweden near the end of their “Double Screening” album tour, they had taken a chance and tried out a move from an entirely acoustic sound to incorporate some electronics.It worked, so they stayed with it: they found that these electronic punctuations never polluted the band’s DNA, but rather stimulated it. The electronic apparatus was clearly additive to the stories of these compositions, the way it all fitted together was astounding.
Which brings us back to the ever-present question: how do you get away from the classic jazz quartet of sax, piano, bass and drums? “We’re always trying to find the answer! There’s no point in redoing what the John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter groups did, because in many ways you’ll never reach their level.” “There’s a certain road in life most people walk on,” Wayne Shorter once said, “because it’s familiar, and they can jostle to get in front. I prefer to take a different road that’s less crowded, with many forks, where you get a wider view of life. I call it ‘the road less travelled’. That’s where I want to be.” In the year which marks its 20th anniversary, Emile Parisien’s quartet has never been more in tune with the thinking of one of its main influences.
Julien Touéry / piano
Ivan Gélugne / double bass
Julien Loutelier / drums & electronics
produced by the artists
the art in music: cover art "SMILE! VI" by Jiri Geller
When accidents happen, they are normally over in seconds, sometimes minutes; this one has been going on for 20 years. It is two decades since the members of Emile Parisien’s quartet played a jam session together. At the end, they looked at each other in disbelief. They had not just been hit by a collective musical thunderbolt, they also knew they had just brought...well...something...into being. The common ground between them was jazz, but each had all kinds of seeds to sow in it, from classical music and contemporary sounds to rock, electronica and chanson. Saxofonist Emile Parisien, Pianist Julien Touéry, Bassist Ivan Gélugne and drummer Julien Loutelier rip up labels, break down barriers, upset codes, and yet they know exactly where they are headed. There is a shared obsession with narrative. “The central axis of the quartet has always been storytelling,” Parisien emphasizes.
“Let Them Cook” is like a breath of fresh air, and with a band sound now firmly and unmistakably of 2024 rather than 2004. There was a particular turning point: at a concert in Sweden near the end of their “Double Screening” album tour, they had taken a chance and tried out a move from an entirely acoustic sound to incorporate some electronics.It worked, so they stayed with it: they found that these electronic punctuations never polluted the band’s DNA, but rather stimulated it. The electronic apparatus was clearly additive to the stories of these compositions, the way it all fitted together was astounding.
Which brings us back to the ever-present question: how do you get away from the classic jazz quartet of sax, piano, bass and drums? “We’re always trying to find the answer! There’s no point in redoing what the John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter groups did, because in many ways you’ll never reach their level.” “There’s a certain road in life most people walk on,” Wayne Shorter once said, “because it’s familiar, and they can jostle to get in front. I prefer to take a different road that’s less crowded, with many forks, where you get a wider view of life. I call it ‘the road less travelled’. That’s where I want to be.” In the year which marks its 20th anniversary, Emile Parisien’s quartet has never been more in tune with the thinking of one of its main influences.
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.
€17.50*
€17.50*
€20.00*
€17.50*