Since the fall of 1993, Les amants de Juliette interpret music that’s orphaned but serene, whose essence is born from the desire to turn our ears towards far away cultures. The trumpet, present ever since the beginning of jazz, takes the vocal role. The tablas evoque India and its thousand year old musical tradition while the percussion is ageless. The prepared piano with its resonators conjure wealth of Indonesian tone melodies, but also polyrhythms from the African continent. Les amants de Juliette have chosen an uncommon musical voyage.
Composer, atypical trumpetist, Serge Adam leads many artistic experiences gathering improvisation, writting and sound experimentation skills.
He created several bands, such as Quoi de neuf docteur (1983), les Standardistes (1991) and Jazz Mic Mac (1994). He is also the co-founder of the trio les Amants de Juliette with Benoît Delbecq and Philippe Foch.
Since 2000, he works in the field of new technologies and interactive performances (Haute Frequence, Around 3 Gardens, Light Reels) is developping projetcs with dance, circus and contemporary authors (Souffles croisés, UW, Pousse-toi de mon soleil!, Icons, My Funny Valentine, À la veille de ne partir jamais & Up to nineteen seventy Miles), which associate images, sounds, words and bodies movements, allowing him to create his own narrative story. Today, more turned to the multidisciplinary approach and the interactive performances, inserting improvisation, writing and technology, Serge Adam develops projects of meetings, where the interaction becomes more constructed, while remaining instinctive. Serge Adam develops a new approach of musical composition by using machines as the electronic extension of a thought of improvisation in real-time
Benoît Delbecq / prepared piano
This musician is one of the representant of he actuel french scene, born in the 90’s at « Les Instants Chavirés » in Montreuil. Founder or co-founder of several orchestras of the new génération (Kartet, The Recyclers, Painting and Delbecq 5), he actually turns in many international festivals. He also plays with Steve Argüelles, Guillaume Orti, François Houle, Evan Parker, Tony Coe, Jim Black, Marc Ducret. Big fan of György Ligeti since his adolescence, he’s also fascinated and influence by traditional central african musics. At last and to quote Telerama, a french newspaper, this musician’s continuously creating jazz of the future, always moving, high temperature of creativity, beeing and living on in the same time, a great pianist of the new generation
He began studiing drum in the 80’s before learning tablas during many travels to India where he met his master, Pandit Shankar Ghosh in Calcutta. During ten years, he worked with the theatral company, «L’Entreprise» as musician and also actor and composed many musics for theatre. He’s actually playing with Akosh Unit and Didier Malherbes.
Les amants de Juliette ***
A rare trio, these lovers are. Struck by Juliet since 1994 (their first recording), and who don’t tire in regularly addressing us news of their latest conquests, like this new opus taking once again the name of the trio formed by the trumpetist Serge Adam, the pianist Benoît Delbecq and the percussionist Philippe Foch. In nine thought out and playful pieces, the three musicians prolong the universe of Don Cherry encountering world music and a melodic itinerary. Adam on the trumpet, Delbecq on the prepared piano and Foch on tablas and other percussion instruments share the same sense of space, where interplay takes the lead. Raw improvisation without fillers, where the rhythmic canvas gives an impression of impressionistic ballads.
Thierry Lepin
Xavier Matthyssens
March 9 at The Maroquinerie
Built on repeating intricate motives, the music of the trio Juliet’s lovers develops on a playful thread, a game where each member brings his own share. The orchestration is atypical: on the piano, Benoît Delbecq weaves a trace of clear notes, sustained by the polyrhythms of the tablas and other percussion instruments of Philippe Foch, while on the trumpet, the measured phrasing of Serge Adam draws arabesques. Delicate work, resting on remarkable placement that one can hear on the last CD of this trio (Quoi de neuf docteur/ Night & Day). But it’s still in concert that the formula flowers in full.
Hugues Le Tanneur
La Maroquinerie, 23, rue Boyer, Paris 20e. 01 40 33 030 60. At 8 :30 p.m. ; 8 Euros
Serge Adam, Benoît Delbecq, Philippe Foch
Juliet’s lovers
Three CDs since 1994, all three titled Les amants de Juliette, to render the combination of jazz with music from elsewhere (India, black Africa…). The subject, acoustical, avoids the breakup of tradition and showmanship. Serge Adam (trumpet), Benoît Delbecq (prepared piano) and Philippe Foch (tablas and percussion) are rather pointillist improvisers, bothered with detail and maintaining a collective momentum by their choice of notes, rhythms and timbres. Clearly on the same wavelength, the three musicians open a vast imaginary space without leaning toward the contemplative aspect one expects under these circumstances. Organic, sensual and of great intelligence.
Sylvain Siclier
1 CD Quoi de neuf docteur. Distributed by Night & Day
Juliet’s lovers
(Quoi de neuf docteur 063/Night & Day).
CDs are objects. This one, however, is a curiosity. Even so, note this since no one will tell you elsewhere, it all started with a rejection of the object in question. The one I have in my hand is no longer the initial one. One of the members of the trio, after having nightmares about its visual aspect– a photo of a male nipple on a contour woven card …- destroyed all parts of it, outer case, metal disk, because of due rights. The esthetic avant-garde does not exclude ethic reserves or moral labels… The music is left alone, intact under a remodeled plastic-paper case. Juliet’s lovers represents a story of the race of a light horseman infatuated with music freed from its stall. First comes their light stride, then their capability to switch from trot to gallop when needed in order to free up the track, to speed up the step. If needed, the polyrhythmic strikes reintroduce Africanisms, the chords bring orientalism, the layering of the purposefully masked instruments (does a prepared piano remain a piano?) sometimes leads us to a non-identified product. It’s just a question of which color dominates. And the desire. The perfume that lingers remains an exterior factor. The only reality that cannot be exceeded: the trumpet is the song figure. The pleasure in taking it all in comes in the month of the ballad (May). One can feel that the music of the trio aims to let in fresh air. Light and airy (Adam), acrobatic spirit (Delbecq) and harmoniously muscular (Foch). The panorama here, out of focus, with a zoom lens or even out of the picture, requires the listener to have a keen sense of reception. That goes to show that taboos of the eye and the ear aren’t necessarily two of a kind. This could be the real lesson to learn in the love story of Juliet’s lovers.
Robert Làtxague