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| Tonight, Laurent de Wilde "NEW MONK TRIO" in Zurich at Moods Internationally renowned jazz pianist, Laurent de Wilde has been described as an exciting and passionate musician. Born in the United States in 1960, de Wilde spent his formative years (1964 to 1983) in France where he was immersed in French culture, music and literature eventually studying philosophy at the "Ecole Normale Supérieure" in Paris. Returning to the United States on a scholarship to further his musical knowledge, he studied jazz piano in New York where he resided for eight years. In the late 1980's he recorded his first albums with trumpet player Eddie Henderson and drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart. Returning to Paris in 1991, he continued his musical career touring throughout Europe, the United States and Japan. In 1993 he was awarded the Django Reinhardt Prize and in 1998 the "Victoires du Jazz". In this period he also wrote his first book, a biography of Thelonious Monk that was published by Gallimard in 1996. The book received critical acclaim and has been translated and published in the United States, the U.K., Japan, Spain and Italy. In 2017 the brilliant pianist and composer Thelonious Monk would have turned 100 years old. To say that his music is still alive would be a grave under-statement, in fact with it's rhythmic depth and harmonic density it has never seemed stronger, more inspiring and is as relevant today as it was when it was composed. For many years while performing either with his acoustic or electronic formations, de Wilde has borrowed pieces from Monk's repertoire - however it has taken more than twenty years for Laurent to dedicate an entire album to Thelonious "Sphere" Monk, a mythical tutelary gure who inspires and artistically nourishes him. With the release of the album "New Monk Trio" de Wilde finally feels he is able to offer a personal and original reading of the work of the master. When speaking of the project Laurent stated "With the turnup of Thelonious 100th birthday, I convinced myself the time had come to pay tribute to him in my own way: by resuming his melodies, rearranging them with my modest personal sound palette and sometimes recomposing his music. I choose for this a format that is pleasant and familiar to me, the acoustic trio. Also, I preferred the short formats Thelonious was so fond of in the beginning and of which I appreciate the compelling constraint of clarity." For the "New Monk trio" project, Laurent de Wilde decided to re-read a selection of Monk's songs, to interpret them in his own way by modifying the original tempo, altering forms and breaking open harmonies according to his mood and humor. In this way, we once again re-discover, with pleasure, versions of the well- known "Misterioso", "Round Midnight", "Pannonica" and "Monk's Mood" beautifully revisited by the trio. We can appreciate the humor of "Monk's Mix" bringing together several melodies on a calypso rhythm. We start to whistle happily with the trio on "Friday The 13", the last title of the album. "Reflections" is interpreted faithfully in line with the original writing while Laurent's original composition "Tune for T" completes an album ripe for the adventurous listener. Laurent de Wilde and his high profile trio clearly establish, for those who would have doubted it, the strong modernity of Monk's language. From yesterday to today, beyond the limits of time, Monk's music remains timeless and its modernity resists the outrages often in- flicted by time on works of the past. The choice of Jérôme Regard on the bass and Donald Kontomanou on the drums is obvious: as partners for several years in the acoustic trio ("Over the clouds"), they developed the show "Ce que la Djazz fait à ma Djambe" around the French actor Jacques Gamblin. Those that wish to enjoy the streamed concert can purchase a digital ticket via the Moods Digital website for 6.90 CHF (approx. 6.- EUR or 6.90 USD). This ticket gives you 7 day access and allow you to view the extensive archive of concerts stored on the platform. All content can be viewed in FullHD and with perfect mastered sound. Concert Details: Date: 5 June 2018 Time: 8:30 (Doors open at 7:30) Venue: Moods Jazz Club Address: Schiffbaustrasse 6, 8005 Zürich. write your comments about the article :: © 2018 Jazz News :: home page |