Hrdacany-Serge Adam-Philippe Botta-David Venitucci


There are two ways to read the cover of this disc. Concretely, this is the third and new album of the trio made up of Serge ADAM (trumpet), Philippe BOTTA (saxophone, flute) and David VENITUCCI (accordion), which is celebrating its tenth anniversary here. The title is unmistakable since it covers the entire cover: 10 Hradčany Praha 1. Esoteric in appearance, this title can also be read as an address, while the cover looks like a street sign. Because Hradčany, a Czech plural word (in German “hradschin”), also designates a district of Prague, precisely that of the hill where the famous Prague Castle is located. What relationship with the trio? Prague is a capital located in the heart of Central Europe, and the trio, by its own admission, “draws its imagination from popular Turkish and Eastern European music. Fueled by jazz improvisation and accustomed to wandering the paths of bohemian music, BOTTA, ADAM and VENITUCCI have developed with HRADCANY an initiatory approach that embraces traditional East European melodies and rhythms in a movement determined to transcend them into a personal and modern improviser-soloists. No copying, no imitation, rather an appropriation passed through the filter of the jazz idiom. From local flavors, the trumpet, the saxophone and the accordion of HRADCANY pulverize the world-Balkan clichés with new developments which draw their momentum from the science of improvisation. Even when HRADCANY splits with a cover of a traditional theme Cigan Müzigi, he blurs the tracks enough to preserve in his music the taste for adventure beyond the maps already drawn.And when he goes for a walk, it's always At an uncertain time, in places that are no less so.		The same goes for the music of HRADCANY as for the city of Prague: it is a central(using) space where various influences rub shoulders and mingle, both very localized (Eastern Europe) but fully expansive, extrapolated, and even extendable towards the Middle East, not so far... (And that explains why the trio had invited the percussionist Keyvan CHEMIRANI on its previous opus, Balkanic Jazz.) In doing so, the three friends can borrow a path already taken before and give it another direction, other detours. So it would be useless to reproach HRADCANY for his laziness in terms of composition on the pretext that he has only made three albums in ten years and that he gives us back here pieces already recorded before, because the versions are necessarily different. We will wisely compare the version here engraved from Bucharest with that of the first CD of the trio. As with Rome, there isn't just a straight path that leads to Bucharest... The same goes for Chjusella, a piece presented on Balkanic Jazz : even without Keyvan CHEMIRANI, it continues to exhale a superbly renewed oriental fragrance. And the fact that Philippe BOTTA (used to practicing Anatolian modes with the Senem DIYICI QUARTET or OKAY TEMIZ) easily swaps his saxophone for a ney flute is quite revealing. In short, HRADCANY practices a locally rooted and fundamentally liberated form of imaginary folklore, driven by a perpetual back and forth between tradition and creation. And if the horizons, on this third opus, are nothing new, the excursions, they show an always inventive vitality that constantly reconsiders the decor. website label : www.quoideneufdocteur.fr ETHNOTEMPOS Stéphane Fougère 10/03/2007

Hradcany,serge adam,philippe,botta,david venitucci,quoi de neuf docteur

There are two ways to read the cover of this disc. Concretely, this is the third and new album of the trio made up of Serge ADAM (trumpet), Philippe BOTTA (saxophone, flute) and David VENITUCCI (accordion), which is celebrating its tenth anniversary here. The title is unmistakable since it covers the entire cover: 10 Hradčany Praha 1. Esoteric in appearance, this title can also be read as an address, while the cover looks like a street sign. Because Hradčany, a Czech plural word (in German “hradschin”), also designates a district of Prague, precisely that of the hill where the famous Prague Castle is located. What relationship with the trio? Prague is a capital located in the heart of Central Europe, and the trio, by its own admission, “draws its imagination from popular Turkish and Eastern European music. Fueled by jazz improvisation and accustomed to wandering the paths of bohemian music, BOTTA, ADAM and VENITUCCI have developed with HRADCANY an initiatory approach that embraces traditional East European melodies and rhythms in a movement determined to transcend them into a personal and modern improviser-soloists. No copying, no imitation, rather an appropriation passed through the filter of the jazz idiom. From local flavors, the trumpet, the saxophone and the accordion of HRADCANY pulverize the world-Balkan clichés with new developments which draw their momentum from the science of improvisation. Even when HRADCANY splits with a cover of a traditional theme Cigan Müzigi, he blurs the tracks enough to preserve in his music the taste for adventure beyond the maps already drawn.And when he goes for a walk, it's always At an uncertain time, in places that are no less so.

The same goes for the music of HRADCANY as for the city of Prague: it is a central(using) space where various influences rub shoulders and mingle, both very localized (Eastern Europe) but fully expansive, extrapolated, and even extendable towards the Middle East, not so far... (And that explains why the trio had invited the percussionist Keyvan CHEMIRANI on its previous opus, Balkanic Jazz.) In doing so, the three friends can borrow a path already taken before and give it another direction, other detours. So it would be useless to reproach HRADCANY for his laziness in terms of composition on the pretext that he has only made three albums in ten years and that he gives us back here pieces already recorded before, because the versions are necessarily different. We will wisely compare the version here engraved from Bucharest with that of the first CD of the trio. As with Rome, there isn't just a straight path that leads to Bucharest... The same goes for Chjusella, a piece presented on Balkanic Jazz : even without Keyvan CHEMIRANI, it continues to exhale a superbly renewed oriental fragrance. And the fact that Philippe BOTTA (used to practicing Anatolian modes with the Senem DIYICI QUARTET or OKAY TEMIZ) easily swaps his saxophone for a ney flute is quite revealing. In short, HRADCANY practices a locally rooted and fundamentally liberated form of imaginary folklore, driven by a perpetual back and forth between tradition and creation. And if the horizons, on this third opus, are nothing new, the excursions, they show an always inventive vitality that constantly reconsiders the decor. website label : www.quoideneufdocteur.fr
ETHNOTEMPOS Stéphane Fougère 10/03/2007

	Citizen Jazz		La terrasse
	The Hradčany trio offers a new creation around the Balkans. At the borders of jazz and Balkan music, this trio invents a most sensitive alchemy. For more than twenty years, Serge Adam has housed in his organization, What's New Doctor, projects whose diversity bears witness to his curiosity. Thus, while pursuing beautiful escapes in electro-acoustic terrain, formidable adventures in the lands of free improvisation, the trumpeter also digs a most fertile furrow with the Hradčany trio, a formation composed of Philippe Botta (saxophone and ney, the flute of the dervishes) and David Venictucci (accordion). If their desire to innovate remains one of Ariadne's thread, it is above all a question here of weaving atmospheres, more or less directly inspired by the melodies and popular airs of the great European Orient. To change quickly, one could say that they deliver their version of the jazz of the Balkans, a consecrated formula which has given rise to many creations for years. Nevertheless, this would no doubt restrict the field of investigation of these improvisers, as the Hradčany trio has been clearing for ten years many avenues to develop a new alchemy from this raw material. In the end, it seems very difficult to delimit the stylistic boundaries of this imaginary folklore as festive as it is inventive... Which, in these times of global mix, sounds like the promise of beautiful dreams on these summer nights. Jacques Denis AVIGNON OFF. Théâtre de l'Alizé, 15 rue du 58e régiment. from 8 to 26 July 10 pm
The enamel plate with rusty corners represented on the cover indicates the direction of the center of Europe, that which turns towards the East. 10 Hradčany Praha 1, the Castle district which overlooks Prague, is also a place of mixing and exchange... For ten years, the trumpet player Serge Adam has led the Hradčany trio and led his companions on the steep and improvised paths of an imaginary folklore that always leads to the foot of the famous Castle. In the original compositions as on the traditional "Cigan Müzigi" which touches the foothills of Anatolia, the saxophonist Philippe Botta brings the flavors of an Orient that he knows well for having evolved for a long time with musicians steeped in this music, such as singer Senem Diyici. Often, he abandons his saxophones for the ney, this traditional flute found under different names in Asia Minor and the Middle East (naï). In the center of Hradčany, the accordionist David Venitucci, that we could see in particular with Isabelle Olivier or in the “Diagonal” of Jean-Christophe Cholet. His impressive bass playing cements the passionate relationship of these three musicians embarked on a traveling music “At an uncertain time”, but his influence does not stop at the rhythm. When Serge Adam's brassy sound evokes the "Bucharest" Gypsy tradition, the ubiquitous accordion chooses the appropriate color and provokes the bends which, from Prague to Istanbul, lead us into cross roads, whether towards the Black Sea or the Mediterranean. For their third album, the trio uses a known canvas, in the same way that the traditional musician constantly takes up the same tune in order to transcend it, to transmit it and to seek its substance. Thus, at the center of the album we find "Chjusella", already present on the previous disc. This more oriental version makes it darker. Because by exploring the same vein, the trio renews its music without being afraid of repetition; it's not because there is nothing new under the sun that it is not good to stroll under its rays ! CITIZEN JAZZ by Franpi Barriaux 29 août 2011
Culture jazz théâtre Coutances (50)
	Hradčany is an atypical but fascinating formation composed of Serge Adam (trumpet), Philippe Botta (tenor, soprano and ney saxophones) and David Venitucci (accordion). In an almost "chamber" instrumental formula, they have built a personal repertoire which draws its original inspiration from the music of the Balkans and today opens up more widely to influences from the Mediterranean basin.
At the antipodes of the clichés of easy world-music, they lead the listener into a dreamlike and poetic universe that goes straight to the point. David Venitucci confirms there, as elsewhere, that he is one of the most creative accordionists of the moment. A technical mastery and an imagination that never fail, either, with Serge Adam (founder of the Quoi de neuf doctor collective and passionate about innovative experiences) and Philippe Botta (companion of the guitarist Alain Blesing and the vocalist Senem Diyici , among others). In short, discreet musicians but totally invested in personal approaches. Artists in the noble sense. CULTURE JAZZ concert theater of Coutances (50) 17/03/2007.Thierry Giard

Citizen Jazz

La terrasse

Hradcany,serge adam,philippe,botta,david venitucci,quoi de neuf docteur

The Hradčany trio offers a new creation around the Balkans. At the borders of jazz and Balkan music, this trio invents a most sensitive alchemy.
For more than twenty years, Serge Adam has housed in his organization, What's New Doctor, projects whose diversity bears witness to his curiosity. Thus, while pursuing beautiful escapes in electro-acoustic terrain, formidable adventures in the lands of free improvisation, the trumpeter also digs a most fertile furrow with the Hradčany trio, a formation composed of Philippe Botta (saxophone and ney, the flute of the dervishes) and David Venictucci (accordion). If their desire to innovate remains one of Ariadne's thread, it is above all a question here of weaving atmospheres, more or less directly inspired by the melodies and popular airs of the great European Orient. To change quickly, one could say that they deliver their version of the jazz of the Balkans, a consecrated formula which has given rise to many creations for years. Nevertheless, this would no doubt restrict the field of investigation of these improvisers, as the Hradčany trio has been clearing for ten years many avenues to develop a new alchemy from this raw material. In the end, it seems very difficult to delimit the stylistic boundaries of this imaginary folklore as festive as it is inventive... Which, in these times of global mix, sounds like the promise of beautiful dreams on these summer nights. Jacques Denis
AVIGNON OFF. Théâtre de l'Alizé, 15 rue du 58e régiment. from 8 to 26 July 10 pm

The enamel plate with rusty corners represented on the cover indicates the direction of the center of Europe, that which turns towards the East.
10 Hradčany Praha 1, the Castle district which overlooks Prague, is also a place of mixing and exchange... For ten years, the trumpet player Serge Adam has led the Hradčany trio and led his companions on the steep and improvised paths of an imaginary folklore that always leads to the foot of the famous Castle. In the original compositions as on the traditional "Cigan Müzigi" which touches the foothills of Anatolia, the saxophonist Philippe Botta brings the flavors of an Orient that he knows well for having evolved for a long time with musicians steeped in this music, such as singer Senem Diyici. Often, he abandons his saxophones for the ney, this traditional flute found under different names in Asia Minor and the Middle East (naï). In the center of Hradčany, the accordionist David Venitucci, that we could see in particular with Isabelle Olivier or in the “Diagonal” of Jean-Christophe Cholet. His impressive bass playing cements the passionate relationship of these three musicians embarked on a traveling music “At an uncertain time”, but his influence does not stop at the rhythm. When Serge Adam's brassy sound evokes the "Bucharest" Gypsy tradition, the ubiquitous accordion chooses the appropriate color and provokes the bends which, from Prague to Istanbul, lead us into cross roads, whether towards the Black Sea or the Mediterranean. For their third album, the trio uses a known canvas, in the same way that the traditional musician constantly takes up the same tune in order to transcend it, to transmit it and to seek its substance. Thus, at the center of the album we find "Chjusella", already present on the previous disc. This more oriental version makes it darker. Because by exploring the same vein, the trio renews its music without being afraid of repetition; it's not because there is nothing new under the sun that it is not good to stroll under its rays !
CITIZEN JAZZ by Franpi Barriaux 29 août 2011

Culture jazz théâtre Coutances (50)

Hradčany is an atypical but fascinating formation composed of Serge Adam (trumpet), Philippe Botta (tenor, soprano and ney saxophones) and David Venitucci (accordion). In an almost "chamber" instrumental formula, they have built a personal repertoire which draws its original inspiration from the music of the Balkans and today opens up more widely to influences from the Mediterranean basin.

At the antipodes of the clichés of easy world-music, they lead the listener into a dreamlike and poetic universe that goes straight to the point. David Venitucci confirms there, as elsewhere, that he is one of the most creative accordionists of the moment. A technical mastery and an imagination that never fail, either, with Serge Adam (founder of the Quoi de neuf doctor collective and passionate about innovative experiences) and Philippe Botta (companion of the guitarist Alain Blesing and the vocalist Senem Diyici , among others). In short, discreet musicians but totally invested in personal approaches. Artists in the noble sense. CULTURE JAZZ concert theater of Coutances (50) 17/03/2007.Thierry Giard

Ten years that hradcany exists and you didn't know it?
New Russsia 09/2006

	Novossiysk Japanese National Ethno Jazz Festival Chisinau International F Jazz - Moldova - For the fifth time Kishinev hosted the International Ethnic Jazz Festival. This edition surpassed the previous ones by the extent of the repertoire as well as by the accumulation of emotions and adventures. This festival was not limited to ethnic art. It represented jazz, semi-jazz, impressionist jazz: a wide range ranging from a reckless show by the Berlin amazons “Venusbrass” to the incredibly shy intellectuals of the Parisian trio “Hradčany”	The Parisian trio " Hradčany " presented the project dedicated to the Balkans. The trio's compositions evoke the feverish sensitivity of the Goncourt brothers, the lyricism of a Gounod, and the typically French parsimony which was reflected in the sobriety of the musicians' stage behavior. David Ventucci's accordion spoke in melodious language with rigorous French prosody. The velvety sonority of Serge Adam's muted trumpet melted into the haze of the imperturbable lines of Philippe Botta's flute. But despite everything, I managed to hear in the acting of these melancholy and upright Frenchmen a hidden desire for revolutionary passions, conspiracies, beautiful women and tumultuous dramatic stories. Ludmila Osipova Translation: Leonid Karev, composer, Paris

Citizen Jazz

Ten years that hradcany exists and you didn't know it?

New Russsia 09/2006

Novossiysk Japanese National Ethno Jazz Festival Chisinau International F Jazz - Moldova -

For the fifth time Kishinev hosted the International Ethnic Jazz Festival. This edition surpassed the previous ones by the extent of the repertoire as well as by the accumulation of emotions and adventures. This festival was not limited to ethnic art. It represented jazz, semi-jazz, impressionist jazz: a wide range ranging from a reckless show by the Berlin amazons “Venusbrass” to the incredibly shy intellectuals of the Parisian trio “Hradčany”

The Parisian trio " Hradčany " presented the project dedicated to the Balkans. The trio's compositions evoke the feverish sensitivity of the Goncourt brothers, the lyricism of a Gounod, and the typically French parsimony which was reflected in the sobriety of the musicians' stage behavior. David Ventucci's accordion spoke in melodious language with rigorous French prosody. The velvety sonority of Serge Adam's muted trumpet melted into the haze of the imperturbable lines of Philippe Botta's flute. But despite everything, I managed to hear in the acting of these melancholy and upright Frenchmen a hidden desire for revolutionary passions, conspiracies, beautiful women and tumultuous dramatic stories.
Ludmila Osipova Translation: Leonid Karev, composer, Paris