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VINCENT PEIRANI & NIGHT WALKER - Living Being II
ACT Records: ACT 9858-2
Vincent Peirani (accordion, accordia & voice) Emile Parisien (soprano saxophone) Tony Paeleman (fender Rhodes & keyboards) Julien Henrè (electric guitar & bass) Yoann Serra (drums) Velntin Liechti (electronics) Recorded March 2017, Brussels.
The term `eclectic` is much overused when describing what passes for contemporary jazz these days but when a musician utilizes music from such diverse sources as Led Zeppelin, Sonny Bono and Henry Purcell whilst investing his own original compositions with allusions to prog rock, renaissance consort music, chanson and folk melodies plus the cinematic sounds of Ennio Morricone and Michael Nyman with avant-garde touches, one can hardly think of anything more appropriate.
Vincent Peirani is a French accordionist who plays his instrument more like a synthesiser rather than the more familiar bal-musette piano accordion, though he does indulge those tendencies in a circus cum carnival oriented piece. To fulfil his distinctive musical vision which he describes as `chamber rock music` he leads a quintet called `Night Walker` and which features prominently the impressive talent of Emile Parisien, a saxophonist of rising reputation and leader of several recordings in his own name. The other musicians are unfamiliar to me and sound as if they come from a rock music background rather than jazz per se but the presence of Parisien and the scope of Paeleman’s keyboard technique maintain a jazz feel throughout. To this we should add the ministrations of the sound engineer who must have played a key role in balancing the cross genre ambitions of the disparate pieces and in the climactic sections achieves a near orchestral presence greater than the sum of the individual instrumental parts. My only reservation in this regard is the rather mechanistic percussion which lies a bit heavily on my jazz ears but which is obviously required to fulfil the artistic brief.
The playlist opens with a lingering version of Sonny Bono’s rather trite pop song, ‘Bang, Bang` which Peirani and his team turn into an exquisite Neapolitan style serenade. They follow with `Enzo` which introduces world music elements and in which the leader plays an accordina, a sort of melodica, before leading us into a powerfully dramatic version of an aria from a seventeenth opera by Henry Purcell with some impassioned playing from Parisien, soaring over the ensemble. The piece which bears the quintet’s name evokes a film-noir atmosphere and builds towards a dramatic climax whilst the centrepiece of the set celebrates Peirani’s love of the 70’s heavy metal band Led Zeppelin and takes the form of a suite of three pieces incorporating two of their most popular tunes, `Kashmir` and `Stairway to Heaven`, the former emulating the rock group’s thundering sound and their more famous signature piece, rendered as a delicately wrought courtly dance.
With this, his second album with the group, ‘Night Walker`, Peirani claims to have `upgraded` to `a new music, a new direction and a new identity`. I haven’t heard the first album but if this one represents an evolutionary step in his musical development then it is a step in the right direction and one that will elicit the interest of a wide community of followers who appreciate music that gathers up influences from far and wide, bringing them together in a truly original and vibrant synthesis.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
ACT Records: ACT 9858-2
Vincent Peirani (accordion, accordia & voice) Emile Parisien (soprano saxophone) Tony Paeleman (fender Rhodes & keyboards) Julien Henrè (electric guitar & bass) Yoann Serra (drums) Velntin Liechti (electronics) Recorded March 2017, Brussels.
The term `eclectic` is much overused when describing what passes for contemporary jazz these days but when a musician utilizes music from such diverse sources as Led Zeppelin, Sonny Bono and Henry Purcell whilst investing his own original compositions with allusions to prog rock, renaissance consort music, chanson and folk melodies plus the cinematic sounds of Ennio Morricone and Michael Nyman with avant-garde touches, one can hardly think of anything more appropriate.
Vincent Peirani is a French accordionist who plays his instrument more like a synthesiser rather than the more familiar bal-musette piano accordion, though he does indulge those tendencies in a circus cum carnival oriented piece. To fulfil his distinctive musical vision which he describes as `chamber rock music` he leads a quintet called `Night Walker` and which features prominently the impressive talent of Emile Parisien, a saxophonist of rising reputation and leader of several recordings in his own name. The other musicians are unfamiliar to me and sound as if they come from a rock music background rather than jazz per se but the presence of Parisien and the scope of Paeleman’s keyboard technique maintain a jazz feel throughout. To this we should add the ministrations of the sound engineer who must have played a key role in balancing the cross genre ambitions of the disparate pieces and in the climactic sections achieves a near orchestral presence greater than the sum of the individual instrumental parts. My only reservation in this regard is the rather mechanistic percussion which lies a bit heavily on my jazz ears but which is obviously required to fulfil the artistic brief.
The playlist opens with a lingering version of Sonny Bono’s rather trite pop song, ‘Bang, Bang` which Peirani and his team turn into an exquisite Neapolitan style serenade. They follow with `Enzo` which introduces world music elements and in which the leader plays an accordina, a sort of melodica, before leading us into a powerfully dramatic version of an aria from a seventeenth opera by Henry Purcell with some impassioned playing from Parisien, soaring over the ensemble. The piece which bears the quintet’s name evokes a film-noir atmosphere and builds towards a dramatic climax whilst the centrepiece of the set celebrates Peirani’s love of the 70’s heavy metal band Led Zeppelin and takes the form of a suite of three pieces incorporating two of their most popular tunes, `Kashmir` and `Stairway to Heaven`, the former emulating the rock group’s thundering sound and their more famous signature piece, rendered as a delicately wrought courtly dance.
With this, his second album with the group, ‘Night Walker`, Peirani claims to have `upgraded` to `a new music, a new direction and a new identity`. I haven’t heard the first album but if this one represents an evolutionary step in his musical development then it is a step in the right direction and one that will elicit the interest of a wide community of followers who appreciate music that gathers up influences from far and wide, bringing them together in a truly original and vibrant synthesis.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
