1time guest of the #Session Live, #1 Ana Carla Maza to present the album Bahia (Persona Editorial 2022).
Bahia is the second studio album by Ana Carla Maza. It opens on Havana, a tribute to the Cuban capital, where she was born 26 years ago, to a Chilean father, lush musician, Carlos Maza, and a Cuban mother, guitarist, Mirza Sierra. “Cuba is a volcano”, said the father. “Havana is madness”, replies the girl. Of course, Havana is the Malecon, this boulevard on the Atlantic coast, which receives the spray from the Everglades. However, the city coils around a bay, very closed, protected, safe: the Bahia, the rear part of a human, port, cosmopolitan Habana Vieja, crossed by mixtures that have spread from Africa to Brazil.
Watch the clip A Tomar Cafe.
Then #Live session #2 with Guillaume de Chassy and Élise Caron presenting the album The Soul of Poets (Nomadmusic 2022).
Note of intent around the soul of poets, see the clip.
“Long, long, long
After the poets are gone
Their songs still run through the streets“
Charles Trenet
The art of creating beautiful melodies is a gift unequally distributed among musicians. Trenet, Schubert, Evans, Misraki, Prokofiev and Frisell are among those who, without a doubt, have received this poetic grace. Beyond styles, times and places, their melodies have the mysterious power to touch our souls and our hearts. Whether written for the voice or, without words, for any other instrument, these universal songs are my viaticums to cross existence. I wanted to celebrate them in my own way on the same disc. To undertake this journey, Thomas Savy (clarinet) and Arnault Cook (double bass) are irreplaceable companions. Like me, they straddle the boundaries between classical music, jazz and song. Like me, they revere the Melody – with a capital M. When we play together, the notion of soloist is abolished in favor of a conversation with equal voices where listening, confidence and freedom prevail. Over the years, our trio has encountered remarkable voices: those of Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri Where David Linx.
Recently, Elise Caron took us into his world where strangeness, fantasy and melancholy rub shoulders. For us, she summoned delicious memories of Danielle Darrieux, Lucienne Delyle, Suzy Delair and Yves Montand. We rehearsed little or not at all, abandoning ourselves to the microphones at the risk of the present moment. We wished for this fragility, walking hand in hand above the void. Too much premeditation would perhaps have frightened away the dreamy ghosts that circulated among us. The soul of poets is sometimes difficult to tame…
Guillaume de Chassy
Biography of Guillaume de Chassy
At the crossroads of jazz and classical music, pianist and composer Guillaume de Chassy has created a poetic and singular universe. He is considered a major artist of the French music scene. Melodist and colorist, his style favors sobriety in a refined sound aesthetic. Guillaume de Chassy has collaborated with American and European jazz personalities, such as Paul Motian, Andy Sheppard, Mark Murphy, Paolo Fresu, André Minvielle, Élise Caron, David Linx, Daniel Yvinec…
Guillaume de Chassy performs all over the world through his many projects, from solo piano to symphonic form. Regularly acclaimed by the press, his discography reflects a personality that defies classification and a constantly awakening creativity. Curious about all artistic forms, he also invests in creations combining text, images and music, especially with actresses Kristin ScottThomas (with which he recorded the album Shakespeare Songs), Vanessa Redgrave and Katja Rieman.
Biography of Elise Caron
Élise studied drama, singing and flute at the Regional Conservatory of Rouen, then singing at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris. Soloist and improviser with the National Jazz Orchestra, she also collaborates on numerous creations by big names in contemporary music, jazz and song.
At the theater, she interprets Shakespeare, Sophocles, Ramuz, Brecht… Under the direction Jerome Savary (for Offenbach’s La Périchole), Jean Louis Martinelli (for The Threepenny Opera and Le Brave Soldat Švejk). More recently, she was directed by David Lescot for La Chose commune – concert-show on the Paris Commune. In the cinema, she played the first role of Cocktail Molotov under the direction of Diane Kurys and shot with Jean-Paul Civeyrac, Franck Guérin, Stan Neumann, Xavier Giannoli and Leos Carax.
She also participated in No Land’s Song – documentary by Ayat and Sarah Najafi on the fight against the ban on women singing in front of mixed audiences in Iran. Author-composer, Élise Caron has been singing her songs for more than twenty years and recording under her name.