Jowee Omicil - Let's Bash! (Bonus Track Version) '2017

Tracks list

	Tracklist
---------
01. Let's Just Bash!
02. Twa Groove
03. Ballad for Roy Hargrove
04. Chaplin Bash!
05. Morais Spirit
06. One Note for Miles
07. Pipillita
08. Sur le pont d'avignon
09. ASL Paré
10. Love & Honesty
11. Something Clear
12. Mellow on the Saxo
13. Letter 4 Brad (Bonus Track)
14. La Bohème (Bonus Track)


On Love Matters!, Jowee Omicil’s new album, there are African rhythms,
melodies by Bach and Mozart, tinges of Thelonious Monk, a Venezuelan lullaby,
Martiniquais songs, hints of the Orient and even Asia, the memory of an
Englishman in New York, of Haitian Rara, Jamaican beats, flashes of funk à la
Miles Davis, the rapture of gospel and of course, exclamations in Omicilian
‘BasH!’ style, as well as a rapper’s verve. All cleverly mixed together.
You might think that this brand of music has no identity since it encompasses so
many different things. But in fact, it simply mirrors who Jowee Omicil is, like
a self-portrait in motion. And how could it be anything else, coming from a man
with such an appetite for life and fresh discoveries?

Jowee Omicil speaks many languages and plays just as many instruments – but
prefers the saxophone.

A son of Haitian emigrants, he grew up in Montreal. He started playing the sax
in the church where his father was a minister, before studying at the Berklee
College of Music in Boston, then moving to New York to launch his musical career
– and, at times, confer with Ornette Coleman or accompany Roy Hargrove as part
of the band RH Factor. He then lived in Haiti and Panama and settled in Paris a
couple of years ago after signing with the Jazz Village label. Although
‘settled’ is perhaps not the best term to describe him. Retracing Jowee
Omicil’s steps precisely would have required a satnav.

In any case, all of this – thirty years, ten years, a month or two hours ago
– is ancient history. What counts is that Love Matters! The here and now, the
epiphany, the magic of a moment shared, the sweat and bliss of work well done.
The fifteen tracks on Love Matters! came out of the same recording sessions as
Let’s BasH!, the album which brought Jowee Omicil to public notice in France
last year. It was cut during the last week of October, 2015, at La Buissonne
studio near Avignon, often as the full moon was rising and other people were
going to bed. The musicians were all in the same room, in a circle. Some were
from the Caribbean, others from Europe (Serbia), others from Africa or Canada.
Each one brought something to the music, which ended up surpassing them all.
Jowee Omicil flitted between instruments (saxophones, clarinet, cornet, flute,
Rhodes piano) and offered up compositions on which the musicians then
improvised. This is the essence of jazz, modern jazz: a joyful, generous form of
music whose long history never hinders its progress or development. That’s how
Jowee Omicil sees things, and how he plays them too. It’s also how the
audiences who have seen him on stage in 2017 experienced things – whether in
France, Africa, Canada or the Caribbean, at small venues or large festivals. In
2017, Jowee played with Tony Allen and BCUC and he’ll never forget it. He
played in private at the small New York apartment of his Cuban friend and
drummer Francisco Mela, and still hasn’t got over it. He brought the public
surprises, coolness and wholeness. A ‘refill’ of positive energy, a little
like at church, where everything started for him, and where Love Matters! draws
to an end. On this record, as on the stage, the effusive Jowee is an
‘entertainer’ crazy about melodies, groove and pop music, and no label
applied to define him will ever stick. To choose the tracks on Love Matters!, he
drifted back to Haiti, its language, its carnival rhythms and its roots before
enlarging the circle to encompass the Caribbean and its African legacy. Then
jazz, pop and classical composers brought him full circle. 




- ALL MY ALBUMS -

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