Guillaume Nouaux - Guillaume Nouaux & the Clarinet Kings (2019)

For a longtime I had this crazy dream rattling around in my head… An extremely ambitious project requiring major organization, and I must admit, I never thought I would ever have enough courage to make it all happen one day. Fortunately, helped along by my midlife crisis, I decided to stop dreaming about it and get to work on it. So why an album centered on the clarinet ? It all sparked about twenty years ago at a Parisian record store, well known by jazz amateurs, when I came upon two old vinyl records under the drummer’s name Zutty Singleton, titled Zutty and the Clarinet Kings vol. 1 and vol. 2 (Fat Cat’s Jazz Records). These albums are very difficult to get your hands on these days, since as far as I know they have never been reissued as CDs. Inspired by the concept of Zutty Singleton’s albums, I decided to contact a few of my favorite clarinet players to see if they would be willing to participate in such a recording project bringing together more than ten European clarinet players and a few others from around the world. To my surprise, I received very enthusiastic yes-es and felt a certain pride and excitation from all of them having been asked to contribute to this adventure. Even though my choice of “Clarinet Kings” is completely subjective and obviously non exhaustive, the panel of clarinet players represented in this double album seems to me to be quite a fine selection of the best there is to hear on the classical international jazz scene today. All these musicians are also and above all friends with whom I have had the occasions to work with many times on stage, on tours, on cruises or already in the recording studio. I have profound admiration and deep respect for each and everyone of them. They all possess a unique sound, a personal style, which makes them clearly identifiable. My wish was to conserve the same formation, a trio, for all the guest clarinet players in order to maintain a sort of homogeneity to the overall project. Also, it is in this formation, a clarinet-piano-drums trio, where I feel free and find the most pleasure expressing myself on my drums. For these trios, I asked four different piano players according to the various sessions: Luca Filastro (Italy), Alain Barrabès (France), Harry Kanters (Holland) and Jacques Schneck (France) to join the clarinet player and myself. They are all part the best European specialists for this particular style of strong left-hand piano playing to compensate a group without a bass player. Let all these fabulous musicians be thanked for their talent, their personal investment, their friendship and for their extreme generosity which contributed to making this dream, of bringing them all together into one double album, a reality.

Tracklist:

CD1:

01. The Minor Drag
02. Melancholy Blues
03. Yours Is My Heart Alone
04. Moanin'
05. Stealin' Apples
06. Sophisticated Lady
07. Tokyo Express
08. Burgundy Street Blues
09. Honeysuckle Rose
10. I'm Confessin' That I Love You
11. China Boy
12. Blue Turning Grey over You



CD2:

01. Nouaux-Leans Strut
02. Just One of Those Things
03. Broadway
04. Liza
05. Ballad for the Man from the South
06. Moonglow
07. Shreverport Stomp
08. Somebody Stole My Gal
09. Candy
10. If Dreams Come True
11. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams
12. Avalon