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Robert Jeanne Quartet: Blue Landscapes
Robert Jeanne (ts) Michel Herr (p) Jean Warland (b) Felix Simtaine (dr)
Within Minutes / Blue Landscapes / Mister A.C. / First Song / Beatrice / Sometime Ago / May Fly / What's New / Love you Madly / The Four Sleepers / You Say You Care
Geradheit, ein intuitives Gefühl für die Melodie, Loyalität zur Tradition, Lyricismus ohne Gepränge und furchtlos, seine Grenzen zu sprengen. Das ist der Tenorsaxophonist Robert Jeanne wie man ihn kennt. Inspiriert von Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Bobby Jaspar - an den “What's New” erinnert - und Al Cohn, dem er“Mister AC” gewidmet hat.
Igloo /rec 2003 /ModernJazz /JewelBox /CDs: 1
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Admit it: if we tried to tell you that Robert Jeanne had converted to Trip Hop, Electro-Jazz or the M’Base language, you’d have a hard time believing us. And you’d be right.
Since the start, the world according to Robert Jeanne has been following the same general rules and is lit by the same heavenly bodies: Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Bobby Jaspar (see the nod in his direction in “What's New”), Al Cohn (to whom he dedicates “Mister AC”). But don’t believe that our architect is living outside time: talk to him about Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano or Rick Margitza and he will light up like the early days.
It’s just that the performer, like the man, is true to the line he chose for himself a long time ago and that still fits him perfectly: rectitude, a feel for melody, loyalty to tradition, lyricism without showiness and above the reservation that pushes him just beyond his real limits. But hasn’t that always been a sign of greatness?
Robert Jeanne discovered jazz in the 50s, through the records of Charlie Parker. His first outings were with amateur bands in 1952, before playing regularly as a trio with René Thomas and Jacques Pelzer in Belgium and Germany. He created the New Jazz Quintet with trumpet player Milou Struvay in 1959, appearing at the first Comblain-la-Tour jazz festival. He created a quartet with Léo Flechet, Jean Lerusse and Félix Simtaine in 1960. It proved incredibly long-lived and played numerous times with Thomas and Pelzer, as well as soloists such as Chet Baker, Bill Coleman, Dizzy Reece, Dusko Gojkovich and Slide Hampton.
Between 1967 and 1969, he played many concerts in Belgium and France with René Thomas and JR Monterose. From 1971 to 1973, he worked with the American trumpet player Charlie Green as part of Jack Van Poll’s Cosa Nostra. In the seventies, he also played in many high-profile Belgian projects such as Solis Lacus (Michel Herr and Richard Rousselet), Félix Simtaine’s Act Big Band and Saxo Mille, a marvellous selection of sax-players brought together in a homage to Jaspar/Thomas. There was also some more experimental work with Frank Wuyst’s Karaa Boulband and Koene Debruyne. His first album as a leader, “Second Live”, was released in 1983.
His quartet slowly started to change as musicians such as Pirli Zurstrassen, Erik Vermeulen, Sal La Rocca, José Bedeur and Frédéric Jacquemin came and went. He joined the Chapuis Street Big Band in 1994 and the Jazz Addiction Band (an octet created by Mimi Verderame) in 1996. He also toured with Verderame in a quartet in Senegal and Nicaragua. More recently, he has been playing with guitarist Joep van Leewen, with whom he also appears alongside Jean Borlée (double bass), Stefan Kremer (drums) and occasionally Hilde Vanhove (vox).
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