Que Vola? Que Vola? LP (Vinyl)

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Jazz Septet + 3 Percussionists On Vinyl LP!

Que Vola? "What's up?" That's what Cubans like to say when they greet each other. They like it so much that the expression has become a kind of verbal gimmick in the heavily musical Spanish spoken on the island. Que Vola? is also the name of a unique musical project that brings a French jazz septet, assembled by Fidel Fourneyron, together with three young and highly-skilled Cuban percussionists who are as brilliant at the art of summoning Afro-Cuban divinities as they are at vibing up the clubs of La Havana, where they play their raucous rumba. Magic.

The word won’t seem far-fetched when you hear how the percussion irradiates the seven pieces on this album with its magnetic power. The brass and the wind (Fidel Fourneyron, Aymeric Avice, Benjamin Dousteyssier & Hugh Mayot) soar with as much class as poetry, high above the earthy throb of the sacred drums, which the kit drums of Elie Duris burst over, thereby opening up other possibilities. The Fender Rhodes of Bruno Ruder allows its mysterious ambiguities to glide over the songs, as enigmatic as the smile of Eleggua, the god that opens up pathways. As for the double bass of Thibaud Soulas, it just keeps talking to the percussion, in a conversation that’s as gripping as it is absorbing.

You could listen to this album as you would start on a journey, as if it were a ceremony, whose trajectory brings you closer and closer to the beating heart of this musical encounter. It opens with a prologue ("Kabiosile – saludo a Changó") in which brass and wind "sing" a salutation to Changó, god of lightning. And it finishes with "Resistir", an epic piece that seems to go back over the long history of the Afro-Cubans, a history strewn with light and shadow, with chains and tears broken by the resilience of a people, opening up the pathways to its own liberty through music. Between them, the journey. Que Vola? often assumes the haunting colours of trance, enveloped with a posey plucked from the byways along which John Coltrane loved to roam.

"Que Vola brings together three Afro-Cuban percussionists — all members of the Osain del Monte Orchestra — and seven French jazz musicians. The lead single from the group's self-titled debut is 'Calle Luz,' a quick, pattering original that reshapes a rumba rhythm around its jagged, four-horn arrangement. The West African roots of rumba come through in various ways here; amid all the rhythmic and harmonic complexity, you might even hear echoes of Fela Kuti's Africa '70 band in the sound of the Rhodes, bass and drums." - The New York Times



Features:
• Vinyl LP
• Gatefold jacket
• Import
• Made in the EU
• Limited time download

Musicians:
Aymeric Avice, trumpet
Adonis Panter Calderon, percussion
Benjamin Dousteyssier, alto & baritone saxophone
Elie Duris, drums
Fidel Fourneyron, trombone
Hugues Mayot, tenor saxophone
Barbaro Crespo Richard, percussion
Bruno Ruder, Fender Rhodes
Thibaud Soulas, double bass
Ramon Tamayo Martinez, percussion

Selections:
Side A:
1. Kabiosile (Saludo a Changó)
2. Nganga
3. Calle Luz
4. Que Vola ?
Side B:
1. Iyesa
2. Fruta Bomba
3. Resistir