Guilhem Flouzat Trio - A Thing Called Joe (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS 2017)

It all began with a postcard. Drummer/composer Guilhem Flouzat was busy planning his next album of carefully crafted songs along the lines of his previous Sunnyside release, Portraits, when he received a letter from his longtime friend and collaborator, Laurent Coq: “Why don’t you record your trio with Sullivan? Just an informal session of standards and easy pieces? I’d love to listen to that.” This meant a complete gear shift. Instead of showcasing original compositions, Flouzat would bare himself in arrangements and preparation, picking songs that he loves and playing them with the two musicians he trusts the most. But how to create a standards album that one would really want to listen to among all the already existing totems of the genre? 

Producing A Thing Called Joe was an exercise in abandon for Flouzat. On the day before the recording, the drummer spent a leisurely afternoon picking tunes and comparing different versions, making a home cooked dinner and engaging in casual conversation with his bandmates. The next day Flouzat, pianist Sullivan Fortner and bassist Desmond White met at The Bunker Studios and took turns calling tunes from a list, making arrangement suggestions on the spur of the moment and rarely recording more than two takes. When the day was done, eighteen tunes were recorded. Then came the work of distilling the material and discovering the right sequence for listeners, so they could do what listeners used to do with old LPs: listen to them over and over again. 

A budding songwriter, Flouzat has always drawn a lot of his inspiration from the wit and understated sophistication of composers and lyricists like Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, Oscar Hammerstein and the Gershwin Brothers. His interest in the American Songbook led him to learn the lyrics of lesser known standards and to call them out at jam sessions, delving into their many interpretations and incorporating them into his drum routine. 

Having been classmates at Manhattan School of Music, the three musicians often meet Uptown in New York City to play whatever Tin Pan Alley earworms that have attached themselves during the week and exchange listening recommendations. A native of New Orleans, Fortner is already considered one of the most important pianists of his generation, having received the American Jazz Pianists Association Award in 2015. Originally from Australia, White has become a fixture on the New York scene and a subtle composer. He was also featured on Flouzat’s Portraits, the song “Knight” being dedicated to him. White and Fortner’s backgrounds could not be more different, but they share the intensity, taste and no frills approach of old souls. Fortner has jazz history at the tips of his fingers and engraved in his soul and White has the relentless mind of a truly singular composer. 

The album begins with Hal Hopper and Tom Adair’s ballad “There’s No You,” featuring scintillating arpeggios from Fortner which conjure an entire orchestra. Monk’s strange and obsessive “Oska T” is launched by Flouzat’s elegant groove and is sliced and looped into three minutes of perfection. Juan Tizol’s “Perdido” is a lesson in relaxed buildup with a nod to Sarah Vaughan’s classic take with the Count Basie Orchestra. The Young and Leigh classic “When I Fall In Love” becomes a hauntingly slow rumba on which Fortner and White make delicate statements, leaving the mystery intact. 

Sullivan is visited by the ghost of Erroll Garner on Ahlert and Turk’s “Walking My Baby Back Home,” which was made famous by Nat King Cole and is here accentuated by the restrained swagger of Flouzat’s variation of the theme during his solo. On Joe Zawinul’s “Midnight Mood,” the trio is at its most sympathetic and daring, flowing as one with a distinctive feel hovering between time and rubato. White picked Jaki Byard’s blues “Mrs. Parker of KC,” a perfect vehicle for incredibly swinging drum and piano solos. The album concludes as it began, on a piece with no solos, honoring Harold Arlen’s jewel from Cabin In the Sky, “Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe,” taken from the Ella Fitzgerald songbook. 

The trio of Flouzat, Sullivan and White blissfully vamps out on the final tune as if it could go forever, thus creating a perfect conclusion to A Thing Called Joe, a joyful tribute to selfless interplay and heartfelt melodies.

1. There's No You 03:59

2. Oska T 03:08

3. Perdido 05:28

4. When I Fall In Love 07:19

5. Walking My Baby Back Home 04:43

6. Midnight Mood 07:18

7. Mrs. Parker of KC 03:50

8. Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe 04:04

Guilhem Flouzat - drums

Sullivan Fortner - piano

Desmond White - bass

Guilhem Flouzat - Portraits (2015)

Source & Label: Sunnyside

Portraits are a fascinating form in painting and fiction. Someone's presence and personality can be conjured with a mere sketch or with an abundance of detail, while the inner world and sensitivity of the artist is demonstrated by what he chooses to observe. Music is often used as a medium for self portrait; what if it could also convey the personalities of others?

Portraits is an answer to that question, through the lens of Paris born and New York based drummer and composer Guilhem Flouzat. This sophomore album comes five years after his first release, One Way...Or Another, hailed by a French critic as "the work of a musical architect to which you can listen again and again". In five years he built a brilliant and steadfast musical family, with mentors such as Eric Harland, Ben Wendel and Dan Weiss. He has played and recorded with the likes of Steve Wilson, Lionel Loueke, Gilad Hekselman and Dave Liebman, honing a musical language expressive and unique, somewhere between the fire of the New York scene and the introspective lyricism of French composer Francis Poulenc.

When the opportunity came to join Sunnyside for his second album as a leader, Flouzat chose to honor his musical family, working for two years on a gallery of musical portraits, a thrilling aesthetic challenge for a young composer. Rather than dedicating finished pieces after the fact, he organized the writing process around his subjects: their musical influences and writing styles, favored harmonies and even personality traits were used in the making of the compositions. The process owes a great deal to sampling and impressionism, with all the tools of traditional composing: motifs, inversion, augmentation... The culmination of the project, however, was to invite the musicians, all of them part of the process from the start, to interpret their own songs. Improvisation completed the portrait, allowing for a new meaning with each performance.

Flouzat curated a series of nine songs with five different line ups, creating a unique gallery over the course of two studio days. More than just sidemen, the musicians are close friends of Flouzat, and a written portrait accompanies each song.

The opening composition, "Ben's Song," aims at conveying the urgency and infectious lyricism of Ben Wendel, who was already present on Flouzat's previous album. In "Where We Should Go", the subtle portrayal of a newborn love, vocalist Becca Stevens delivers a stunning performance of lyrics written by the leader himself. "Underachiever" is a gently ironic nod to young lion Adam Larson, an odd meter tour de force morphing into a hypnotic trio tune. "At This Juncture In Time" uses the haiku metric form, contrapuntal lines and rich modulations dear to altoist Jay Rattman to portray him. The one self-portrait of the album, the ethereal lullabye "A Dream" features interplay between Becca Stevens and the band that reaches telepathic heights. "Sleepwalk" is a brooding landscape designed for flautist Anna Webber, while "Truce" inverts one of pianist Laurent Coq's own compositions to honor his influence on Flouzat's music. The album ends with tributes to the two other members of the rhythm section, Can Olgun on the through-composed "What's Up Yourself", and bassist Desmond White on the songlike "Knight".

Portraits is at once invigorating and evocative, a compositional feast steeped in many art forms. Guilhem Flouzat's versatile playing is always at the service of a broader musical vision; the trust and emotional bond between the musicians is on display throughout. Led by rising stars Ben Wendel and Becca Stevens, the portraits' subjects add another dimension to this artistic statement of uncommon strength.

1. Ben's Song 05:28
2. Where We Should Go 04:45
3. Underachiever 05:00
4. At This Juncture In Time 07:02
5. Knight 05:53
6. Sleepwalk 04:22
7. Truce 05:14
8. What's Up Yourself 07:52
9. A Dream 05:00
   

Becca Stevens - voice (2 & 9)
Ben Wendel - tenor sax (except 3)
Jay Rattman - alto sax (4, 6 & 8)
Anna Webber - tenor sax & flute (4, 6 & 8)
Laurent Coq - piano (2, 5, 7 & 9)
Can Olgun - piano (1, 3, 4, 6 & 8)
Desmond White - bass
Guilhem Flouzat - drums  

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