Philip Catherine - Live At The Berlin Jazzbühne Festival 1982 '2022/2023

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Janet
02. Babel
03. Crystal bells
04. Petit Nicolas - Grand Nicolas
05. Air power
06. End of August
07. Transvested express
08. September start

“In the afternoon we performed in a rather austere theatre in East Berlin.
Then I remember we crossed Checkpoint Charlie that evening to play in a club in
West Berlin. The atmosphere was completely different. I felt as though we were
living in a black and white spy movie.” Nicolas Fiszman recalls that
chaotic day of 13 June 1982. Two outstanding guitarists, Philip Catherine and
Nicolas Fiszman, who at the time was only seventeen years old, were taken from
one side of Berlin to the other in pouring rain to perform to unlikely
audiences. At both concerts, they played the same programme of seven pieces
written by Philip, with the exception of “Crystal Bells”, composed
by Charlie Mariano. The pair were not master and student. Rather, Philip
remembers Nicolas like a young brother he might have taken to the beach. After
the 1960s, Philip became a major figure on the jazz scene, working with the
greatest: Charles Mingus, Chet Baker, Stéphane Grapelli, Dexter Gordon, to
name only a few. Nicolas has played with Charles Aznavour, Vanessa Paradis,
Francis Cabrel and Eric Serra, and travels the world with Sting.

On that gloomy afternoon, the two guitarists, alone on stage, decided to
brighten up the morosity that reigned. The pieces they played bore titles such
as “Janet”, “Babel” and “Petit Nicolas”. It
is hard to believe that this varied, well-constructed, polyphonic music was not
entirely written down on paper. Philip says, “Nothing is written from
beginning to end. I compose the themes and some harmonic bridges. Then we have a
chord chart … and that’s it.” The foundations are written;
inspiration, taste, fantasy and friendship do the rest. We feel as though we are
taking a nonchalant walk through Rio or Miami. The concert is punctuated by
thunderous applause.

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