jazz and blues news interviews and articles jazz gig guide

jazz and blues links audio files musicians ads

interview

Francis Dreyfus :: I had some artists who were touring regularly in Russia by Eva Simontacchi Photo by Alberto Gottardelli E.S.: I am interviewing you for a Russian Magazine JAZZ QUADRAT. F.D. I had some artists who were touring regularly in Russia, you know? E.S. Were they touring regularly? F.D. Yes, yes, they were going quite often over there: Richard Galliano, a few days ago André Ceccarelli, you know, the drummer, was there, and a short time ago Bireli Lagrene was also there, in Moscow. It was a new festival in Moscow, which lasted three or four days... We have regularly a lot of people there. Didier Lecoul, the violin player was also there. And we are working on a new young guitar player called Silvan Luc, he played with Bireli Lagrene in duet, and also in a trio called “Trio Sud” and the drummer was André Ceccarelli. E.S. And do you think Marcus Miller will also be travelling to Russia? F.D.: Oh, yes, surely. Actually, the problem with Marcus is that he’s on a new management for Europe, and the idea was to try establish each country where he did not play for a long time, and it has been planned, of course, to play in Russia. It’s an important country because, of course, the audience is there! I am not able to tell you who is our importer but we distribute some of our records over there. E.S. Could you tell us something about Marcus Miller? How you came to know him, and how all this happened? F.D.: I think I met him.... I don't want to make any mistake....I think I met him in 19'79 in L.A. and through his former manager I represented him in publishing, you know for the songs, in the French countries, and we started to work like that. I introduced him to Jean-Michel Jarre when Jean-Michel Jarre was recording his fourth album called "The Look" in New York, and the bass player was Marcus Miller. Marcus was very young at the time. After that we were permanently in contact and when I started to open my jazz lable, in 1991 I think, the first artist I called was Marcus, through his manager, and I said: "Look, you know, you have to record", and stuff like that, and finally the project was achieved and now he's been working with my recording company, Dreyfus Jazz for 13 or 14 years and we are quite close friends, and we work quite often together, and he is touring at least twice per 18 months in Europe, and sometimes even three times, as he did last year: three times in 18 months. This year it will be twice in one year because he has to come back again in Europe more or less at the end of June - end July. E.S.: So he'll be back again soon. Do you know where he'll be touring? Milano again? Or which other towns? Maybe Rome? F.D.: Maybe, but maybe not. You know, it's one of my plans. Because I'm in Milan I realise that maybe he's not playing in Rome, so I want to call the promoter, you know, his agent, to tell him: "Have you forgotten Rome or not?" But I'll try and see if he can stay a little longer. But you know, I think it's very difficult because you have certain periods of time with an artist; he stayed 10 days I think in L.A. at his home, but he was coming from a 3 week tour in Japan, so this means that the record is also released at the same time, and then in Europe, in the States, now he is here, becuse we pushed him to make the tour, in order to promote the record, because of course all the journalists, the TV people, they are very happy to be in contact, and also the audience, of course! E.S.: And Marcus Miller surely has a great audience, he is into various music styles, he's not in a very small niche. F.D.: Yes, exactly, he's not in a niche any more. And from what I've heard, the new album was just released in the States, and the radio stations are very happy and enthusiastic about that, and he has to tour also over there. For this reason after that we have planned to make a tour, and all the dates are not yet totally definite but he cannot stay for two months: you have to make a choice. The choice does not really depend upon my goal, but it depends more on how many kilometers he has to cover, the distances, the choice of the countries to visit. I'm lucky I'm not into that planning sort of thing. It's such a headache! E.S.: Of course the organizational and planning issues have to be solved before starting a tour. Many people don't realize the kind of work that lies ahead of a tour. F.D.: In fact many people don't understand, and they think: "Why didn't he come?" Because he cannot, that's all! He would come, because Marcus, you will whitness this tonight: he loves the stage, my,he really loves to play and be on stage! He was opening in Paris 3 or 4 days ago, and he was terrific. Absolutely. You'll see him tonight. published 15.08.2005© 2005 jazz news :: home page

related links