Humair / Jeanneau / Texier - Akagera (JMS Records Vinyl LP)

Humair / Jeanneau / Texier - Akagera | Vinyl LP - 2021 Disques JMS Reissue (JMS 012)

• Daniel Humair on drums, François Jeanneau on tenor and soprano saxophone, flute and lyricon, and Henri Texier on double bass, oud and percussion, the trio described by JMS as "one of the founding moments of an aesthetic and an ethic of French jazz."
• Composed as the soundtrack for a French television documentary about the animals of the Akagera region of Rwanda, directed by Gérard Vienne and broadcast in 19 episodes on national television, with nine tracks that move between African-influenced modal jazz, Middle Eastern textures and European improvisation.
• First vinyl reissue of a 1980 recording on the French JMS label, with Gordon Beck guesting on piano for one track.

Daniel Humair, François Jeanneau and Henri Texier were three of the most important jazz musicians in France by the time they formed a trio in the late 1970s. Humair, a Swiss-French drummer who had played with Dexter Gordon, Phil Woods, Eric Dolphy and Chet Baker during their various European residencies, is also an abstract painter whose visual work has been exhibited alongside his music. Jeanneau, a Parisian saxophonist, went on to co-found and direct the Orchestre National de Jazz in 1986. Texier, a Parisian double bassist, became one of the most recorded European jazz musicians through decades of work on the Label Bleu catalogue. When they recorded Akagera at CBS Studios in Paris across October and November 1980, the commission came from outside jazz: the director Gérard Vienne needed a score for a wildlife documentary about the animals of the Akagera region of Rwanda, at the source of the Nile. The trio treated the assignment as an album rather than a backing track.

The nine pieces are short by free-jazz standards, most running between two and five minutes, but the range they cover in that time is striking. Texier plays oud alongside his double bass, bringing a Middle Eastern tonality into "Arfia" and "Maghreb De Canard." Humair plays a Syntoba, a percussion-activated electronic instrument, adding a synthetic layer to his drum work. Jeanneau plays lyricon, an early wind-driven synthesiser, alongside his tenor and soprano saxophones and flute, and the original pressing credits also list bass clarinet, an Oberheim Polyphonique 8 and an ARP 2600 among his instruments. All three compose: "Akagera" and "Akagera II" are group compositions, "Rampoon" and "Arfia" are Jeanneau's, "Nebbia" is Texier's with Gordon Beck guesting on piano, and "Mongol Fier" is Humair's. Jean-Marie Salhani produced. This is the 2021 JMS reissue (JMS 012), the first vinyl repress since the original 1980 pressing.