Raphaël Imbert - Music Is My Home: Act 1 (2016) [Official Digital Download]

Along with iconic American musicians - Big Ron Hunter, Alabama Slim, Leyla McCalla, Sarah Quintana… and young French artists, mostly from Compagnie Nine Spirit, the saxophonist suddenly evolves into an ethno-musicologist, taking us on a journey to the American “Deep South”. With his unique understanding of groove, he takes us to the heart of Creole and the current state of our ever- evolving oral cultures. He also considers our links with blues, jazz and our roots in a playful and original adventure. He expresses personal experience and musical contacts in tune with this fertile musical ground. That is the full meaning of the improvised musical welcome brought up to date here in Music is My Home.

A popular manifesto! “Jazz is the rule, blues is the tool and swing is the obvious thing!” At the outset, I had thought to use this precept as a slogan, “swing as the evidence”. But the literal English translation “evidence” seemed to have too much of a legal ring to it.

However, on reflection, “evidence” in its accepted English sense is also pertinent. Swing is evidence, proof of what is going on in American music styles, from Paul Robeson to Leonard Bernstein, via John Coltrane, Bill Monroe and Eminem. Musical styles which demonstrate the power of a musical revolution we call “jazz”, “blues” or “Americana”, and which, for two hundred years, have been shaking Western musical culture to its foundations. Shaking but not challenging. Jazz does not call into question the fundamentals of academic knowledge, neither at its beginnings nor at present. …

Tracklist:
01. MLK Blues
02. Black Atlantic
03. The Mighty Flood
04. Going For Myself
05. Weeping Willow Blues
06. Please, Don’t Leave Me
07. Make That Guitar Talk
08. La Coulée Rodair
09. Help Me Lord
10. Sweat River Blues
11. Music is my Home
12. Just A Closer Walk With Thee
13. Po Boy
14. Going For Myself (radio edit) (Bonus Track)
15. Sweat River Blues (radio edit) (Bonus Track)

Personnel:
Raphael Imbert, saxophones, keyboards, vocals
Pierre Fenichel, double bass, bass ukulele
Big Ron Hunter, vocals, guitar
Leyla McCalla, vocals, cello, banjo
Anne Paceo, drums, vocals
Sarah Quintana, vocals
Marion Rampal, vocals
Simon Sieger, trombone, keyboards, accordion
Alabama Slim, guitar
Alain Soler, harmonica
Thomas Weirich, guitars