This morning, Mail Tape invites you to revisit some classics and to continue the discovery of artistic works from other times or that just come out of the studios. So, whether they are new or old, today’s tracks all have in common that they have an incredible depth, a very special ability to inspire the people who listen to some waves of emotions that their authors have taken care to lay down fervently on their instruments. And fervor is particularly discussed in this episode because it’s the fruit of our passion, it’s what we take pleasure in sharing with you, every Sunday!

Today, it’s Camille Thouvenot who cooks this enchanting episode with us. His new album has just been released and this is the opportunity for him to tell us more about the influences that nourished his creation; essential songs in the form of masterpieces that are the foundation of our common musical culture, that inspire entire generations, past, present and future.

Guest’s selection

Bob Marley - Concrete Jungle

Camille Thouvenot: ” (this particular version)

Since very very young, I have a link with Jamaican music (reggae, rocksteady and ska) in particular. Two groups in which I officiated bear witness to this.
From the ages of 13 to 18, I co-founded our first group with childhood friends called “Skanda” with whom we played festive music strongly inspired by ska and reggae, Jamaican music (Bob Marley, Skatalites…) , English (Madness, Steel Pulse..) and French (Sinsemilia, Babylon Circus, La Ruda, Percubaba..). It was quite wonderful to be able to experience these things at a young age during our first stage and studio experiences. This had a big impact on us.
Almost ten years after the end of Skanda, I reassembled the “Foolish Ska Jazz Orchestra” in Lyon where I am based, to reconnect with this music but this time by mixing it with the Jazz that I had discovered and working for ten years.
Currently I still quote and play reggae phases by evoking the “skank” with my left hand when I play the piano in my trio “Jazz”. I actually recorded the song “Concrete Jungle” on my album released last November. “

Keith Jarrett - Whisper Not

Camille Thouvenot: ” (by Benny Golson, recorded by the trio of pianist Keith Jarrett)

Keith is a giant of the piano, but not only that. Known worldwide for his solo album “The Koln Concert”, he led a high-flying trio for years with drummer Jack DeJohnette and double bassist Gary Peacock.
My father had the (live) disc “Whisper not” in fact, in which this trio revisits and interprets what we call jazz standards. This (double) album is incredible for me. This music has deeply marked and inspired me. Among other things because my first Jazz teacher Alex Clapot, at the Nîmes conservatory, was completely fanatic of Keith Jarrett. So I “recovered” (which means learning by heart and playing over the music the improvisations that we hear) this song and several others by Keith. He is one of my main influences along with of course several other renowned pianists such as Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock or Brad Melhdau to name just a few.
Beyond Jarrett, it’s this composition by the legendary saxophonist Benny Golson, which has always fascinated me and which I have been playing since I was 16, I think. I also recorded a version of it on my latest record.
Benny Golson has just left us at the age of 94, after an incredible career. He marked the history of Jazz, Peace to his soul. “

Oscar Peterson - I Remember Clifford

Camille Thouvenot: ” (By Benny Golson (again) performed this time by the trio of piano giant Oscar Peterson)

The Trio (piano - double bass - drums) is a “classic” form in jazz, most pianists try this formula and come back and forth during their career. I am myself in my second trio with at the moment and for 8 years the direction of the “Camille Thouvenot Mettà Trio” with which we tour regularly and release our second album of compositions and rearrangements.
Anyway…
Oscar Peterson has sublimated this trio form time and again, he is an undisputed master of swing and the instrument, one of the main references for any pianist who loves jazz. Like many others, he changed the history of this instrument in this aesthetic.
The song “I remember Clifford” is just sublime, a gem of composition in my opinion. A ballad that Benny Golson wrote in the 50s (just that, I remind you that the man has just died!)
This piece is dedicated to his friend at the time Clifford Brown, a genius trumpeter, who died suddenly in a car accident. It has become an anthem in the jazz world. And here Oscar, gives us a lyrical and jubilant version in the sense where the tempo is doubled twice, therefore: we start from a ballad passing through a swing medium and bringing us to a crazy up tempo. You really have to listen to the piece from start to finish (8 minutes of madness for me). I also noted this song. “

Curator’s selection

Camille Thouvenot Mettà Trio – Donkey-Run

Anto: ” It was in Marseille, during the finish of the Tour Alternatiba that my ears became acquainted with the vibe of Camille Thouvenot. He was on the keyboard to accompany MC Sirop with other very good musicians, but we only saw him, we only heard him. The way his hands slide across the keys is simply breathtaking. So I went to listen to what else he was doing and the least we can say is that the man is prolific. In addition to the project with MC Sirop of which he notably composed “l’adorée”, he also plays double bass with the Foolish Jazz Orchestra and within the excellent group Automatic City.
But it’s with his own trio that we invite him today to discover a universe tinged with jazz and reggae. Two influences which particularly resonate on this “Donkey Run”, a song dedicated to the donkey he knew as a child in his countryside in the south of France. A delicious groove which allows you to take full measure of the technique of this outstanding pianist. “

Nala Sinephro – Continuum 2

Anto: ” Three years later, the Belgian composer based in London returns with a new album from which it’s almost sacrilege to extract a simple snippet like that, on the fly. But what a joy to find here the delicacy and lightness seen in the first opus. Here we are on a decidedly more ambient line where jazz intrudes in small touches, almost with shyness, as if the virtuosity that inhabits this album wanted to be discreet. So here is a simple extract: Continuum number 2, and we strongly invite you to take a listen to the other nine tracks. Classic to be! “

Ménélik – Un petit rien de Jazz (prod. Jimmy Jay)

Anto: ” Did you say classic? Come on, we’ll serve you a double dose with this little nugget from Ménélik, an author well known in French rap for the flagship titles he released in the mid-90s. He’s supported here by Jimmy Jay on production for a track which appears on the compilation of “cool sessions” by the producer of the same name, himself particularly famous for having produced MC Solaar’s first two albums “Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo” and “Prose combat”, both entered the hip-hop legend.
What we hear there is therefore a haunting sample of Grover Washington, sharp and articulate lyrics, and a tone typically characteristic of nineties rap, claiming varied influences as African as American. “

Rouge (Madeleine Cazenave) - Louves

Anto: ” To close this selection, a wild song which nevertheless has a taste for refinement. Behind this piano-double bass-drums trio, there seem to be several worlds converging in one place. We are caught and transported by a determined melody, which seems to want to trace a path in a surveyed area.
We owe this piece to Madeleine Cazenave, pianist and composer who with her trio “Rouge” released at the beginning of the year a contemplative album made of colorful landscapes drawn in music as a painter would do on a canvas ”

And that’s it for this Sunday.
Thanks to Camille Thouvenot for this beautiful walk and for the precise description of what is important to him for the tracks that make up this playlist. Well done to Jan Henrik for his first illustration for Mail Tape and welcome to the team friend!

See you next week for the penultimate episode of the year.