(Contemporary Jazz, Fusion, Latin Jazz) Jacky Terrasson - Gouache - 2012, MP3, 320 kbps

It's been twenty years since he last stayed in one place: between Paris and New York, his two loves, he just couldn't choose. With a Frenchman for a father, and an American mother, Jacky Terrasson has been preserving the best of both worlds, and you can't find fault with that. It's the same with his music: he loves jazz that has energy, the kind whose anchor lies in swing, with a vivacious taste and a feeling for interaction; but Jacky has also tasted the harmonic depth of classical repertoire, and has never been averse to venturing into unknown territory… Ever since making his first record in 1992, this is one pianist who never gave up on anything he loved: always surprising, whenever he disappeared it was only to spring back up again where no-one was expecting him. Twenty years after he began making records, this new album, his first for Universal Jazz France, aims to celebrate that vision of his: a gaze opening outwards.
The repertoire here, as usual, is deliberately eclectic; it doesn't lock itself away inside any conventional aesthetic. There's nothing Jacky Terrasson loves so much as to outsmart the standards of popular music, a principle that's as old as jazz itself, and one that he applies to our own times. Enthusiastically, he calls it "Picking up melodies that aren't in the real book, but can be heard on radio or in films." In the past, the tunes were those of Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson or Henri Salvador; today, those making their entrance go by the names of Amy Winehouse, Justin Bieber and John Lennon.
There's more than one listener who's going to be surprised by his choice. There are those who'll say it's a surrender to fashion, but that would be a simplification: this is both a jazz tradition – appropriating the most improbable songs (Sonny Rollins, saluted here by Valse Hot, was a specialist in this) – and a domain where Jacky Terrasson has shown he has considerable talent for the exercise. Note that these "covers" are no ordinary reprises. The pianist plays them and "unplays" them, taking pleasure in all of them so as to play them even better: they are transformed by his sense of tempo, by his artistry as a performer, and by his sheer ability to transfigure a song. As regards the latter, Jacky makes no secret of the debt he owes to Ahmad Jamal, and has kept the best of his influence for himself: somewhere between that mobile, contrasted "touch", and the art of leaving a tune suspended, especially one that plays hard-to-get… "I have a lot more fun playing these tunes that come off the streets than I do when I play a standard. And I'm not trying to be provocative, even if jazz does sometimes have a conservative feel I think is frightening," insists Terrasson.
"I like serious music, but I don't want the playing to be too serious," he goes on. It's a phrase that might serve as his modus operandi for this album. While holding all the cards he needs to serve jazz at its highest level, Jacky Terrasson definitely has that hint of craziness which makes all the difference. He also has a gift for choosing a trio as quick to follow him as it is to provoke him and push his playing to the limits: with Burniss Earl Travis on double bass and Justin Faulkner on drums – both barely twenty (Justin is 21, Burniss 25) – Terrasson gives yet another demonstration of his aptitude for discovering talents, not to mention his ability to build a trio where the exchanges are lively, and the tightness perceptible right from the very first bar: "I'm a player; I love the playful aspect of the trio, the perpetual interchange we can develop. It's the kind of 'ménage à trois' that makes us provoke one another and react to what happens," he says.
Two notable guests join him on this project, two French jazz figures with whom Jacky Terrasson has had nourishing exchanges over the years: clarinettist Michel Portal, his partner in many duet-concerts in recent times; and trumpeter Stéphane Belmondo (their complicity dates back to their professional debuts at the beginning of the Nineties). Michel Portal shines on bass clarinet in the album's opening title, the vertiginous Try to Catch Me, where you can also hear Belmondo. Stéphane's presence makes itself felt on Gouache, an emblematic title for a record with so many colours: "I think of music in terms of colour, and when we're playing, the things I see in my head are colours too. But this title is also named after some French slang I just discovered: when you're hot, really up for it, you've 'got gouache'! I think that really reflects the music we're playing, and the way I felt at the time!" It gives you a glimpse of what this album has in store; it's a record which, as usual, has a good chance of surprising those who thought Jacky Terrasson was now subdued and resting on his laurels... Here he reveals his whole palette, occasionally playing a Fender Rhodes with a wah-wah pedal to broaden his expressive range even further.
Another guest to be heard in this opus is the talented Cécile McLorin Salvant, the 2010 winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition (which Jacky won also, way back in... 1993!). For many, Cécile comes as the real discovery here: in a duet with the pianist, she sings an overwhelming version of John Lennon's song Oh My Love, spare and sublime, and also performs one of this album's most surprising titles, Je te veux, a melody composed by Erik Satie: "I think this is a very beautiful melody, often sung in the opera repertoire, and the lyrics, to me, are just absolutely erotic! I tried to take the melody out of its context and turn it into something else, especially as the music is so interesting harmonically", explains the pianist, whose previous work already features a melody by Francis Poulenc.
From the colours of the Caribbean to swing, from New York to the streets of Paris, from electric to acoustic and duet to quintet, this new album from Jacky Terrasson bubbles with life and energy, proving that his fieriness is still intact, and his appetite for music still entire. "This record was made quite naturally," observes Terrasson in conclusion, "and the recording was very convivial. I'm the first listener who's concerned by what's going on, and if I get bored, then for you it's going to be unbearable... That's the thread for me: having something to say. Otherwise, there's no point in playing." You can't find anything wrong with such beautiful intentions, and Terrasson's hair-raising version of C’est si bon – the album's finale – does nothing to change our minds. It might even be our own leitmotiv!