Marc Copland piano
Robin Verheyen saxophones
Stephane Kerecki bass
Fabrice Moreau drums ‘In the hands of this group, music is magic, and Marc Copland is the master magician... Someday is one of the 10 best CDs of the year.’ - allaboutjazz.com, 9 December 2022
It doesn't seem right to consider pianist Marc Copland (born 1948) an elder statesman, and indeed he is still going strong. Like no other pianist since the mid-1970s, he has produced sounds, and his achievements as a leader are breathtaking: over 40 critically acclaimed CDs, in solos, duos, trios, quartets and quintets. The albums, recorded for over ten different labels, feature significant jazz voices from the past and present: John Abercrombie, Ralph Alessi, Joey Baron, Mike Brecker, Randy Brecker, Dennis Chambers, Mark Ferber, Billy Hart, Dave Liebman, Victor Lewis, Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Gary Peacock, Bill Stewart, Robin Verheyen, Ken Wheeler and
others.
‘I've never seen anything like it,’ says saxophonist Robin Verheyen. ‘He's an inspiration, constantly coming up with new ideas and new sounds. It's the kind of energy and growth you'd expect from someone in the prime of their creative life. And he's not just a great voice with such a distinctive sound and approach – you won't find a better accompanist anywhere.’ After years of recording for many of the world's best labels (Challenge, ECM, Hatology, Nagel-Heyer, Pirouet, Savoy, Sketch, Soul Note, etc.), Copland took the plunge in 2016 and founded his own label. The pianist's entry into the record business grew year after year, despite the general downward trend in CD sales. His latest solo piano release, John (illusions / mirage), received ‘Editor's Pick’ from Down Beat magazine, CHOC from Jazz Magazine (France), ‘CD of the Month’ from Stereoplay (Germany) and five stars from Rondo (Germany) and Neu Züricher Zeitung (Switzerland). Dan McClenaghan of allaboutjazz.com summed it up: ‘Copland is a genius... he creates the most beautiful sounds.’ The respected blog jazz station named him ‘Acoustic Pianist No. 1 of the Year’ in 2020.
Robin Verheyen is a prominent saxophonist and composer of the younger generation. His credits include Marc Copland, Roy Hargrove, Maria Schneider and Toots Thielemans, and his own bands have featured greats such as Joey Baron, Drew Gress, Billy Hart and the late Gary Peacock. He also leads the band TaxiWars with rock singer Tom Barman (known from dEUS). In 2014, he travelled to Senegal to immerse himself in the country's musical traditions and subsequently used this experience to combine West African rhythms with modernist harmonies. This kind of cross-genre approach to music has become a hallmark of the saxophonist's work. In January 2018, Universal Music released Verheyen's ‘When The Birds Leave’ with Marc Copland, Drew Gress and Billy Hart. More recently, he completed two new commissioned works, one for string quintet and saxophone and one for string trio, piano and saxophone, with pianist Copland and the Goeyvaerts String Trio. The latter work premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where Verheyen has been Artist in Residence since 2017. Robin's first Universal release was followed in 2019 by MiXMONK with veteran Joey Baron and young pianist Bram De Looze. Upcoming releases for 2021 and 2022 include a new solo soprano saxophone album and a quartet reworking of Bach's ‘A Musical Offering’.
Stéphane Kerecki was born in Paris in 1970. After studying economics at Paris II University, he studied bass at the Paris National Conservatory with Jean-François Jenny-Clark, Riccardo Del Fra and Jean Paul Celea.
Over the past twenty years, Stéphane Kerecki has performed in the groups of Denis Colin, Guillaume de Chassy, Yaron Herman, Daniel Humair, François Jeanneau, Sheila Jordan, Steve Lehman, Ronnie Lynn Patterson, Michel Portal, Anne Paceo, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Thomas Savy, Jacky Terrasson and others.
In 2001, he won second prize as a soloist at the International Jazz Competition at La Défense in Paris (as the only bassist), and in 2005, Jazzman magazine named him one of the 125 talents of tomorrow. In 2003, he formed his own trio with saxophonist Matthieu Donarier and drummer Thomas Grimmonprez. With this trio, he recorded two CDs: Story Tellers and Focus Dance, for which he received numerous awards: Grand Prix 2007 from the Charles Cros Academy, Emoi Record of the Year 2007 (Jazz Magazine), CHOC from Le Monde de la Musique...
The third album, Houria, featured American saxophonist Tony Malaby (Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, Daniel Humair, Michel Portal, etc.) joining the trio; this record earned him a nomination in the Instrumental Revelation category at the Victoires du Jazz 2009 (the French Grammys). In 2010, he continued his collaboration with the Zig-Zag territoires label by recording the CD Patience with English pianist John Taylor (Kenny Wheeler, John Surman, Jan Garbarek, Miroslav Vitous, Peter Erskine, etc.). This album was awarded a ‘CHOC of the year 2011’ by Jazz Magazine/Jazzman Magazine, and in 2013 the magazine named it one of the 120 cult duos in the history of jazz. In 2012, the trio recorded their latest album, Sound Architects, with two guests, saxophonist Tony Malaby and Serbian pianist Bojan Z (Michel Portal, Henri Texier, Julien Lourau ...), for the Outnote / Outhere label. This album has been highly praised by the trade press (‘Indispensable JAZZ NEWS’, SO Selection JAZZ, Elu citizen Jazz, MUST TSF ...) and was voted one of the three jazz albums of 2012 by the daily newspaper Libération.
In February 2013, Stéphane Kerecki was selected as one of the three finalists for the Prix Django Reinhard (French Musician of the Year) by the Academy of Jazz.
In 2014, he recorded the CD Nouvelle Vague with John Taylor, saxophonist Emile Parisien and drummer Fabrice Moreau. Singer Jeanne Added features on two tracks, including Michel Legrand's ‘La Chanson de Maxence’, which Télérama hailed as ‘Jazz Song of the Year 2014’. The CD received a “CHOC” from Jazz Magazine, FFFF from Télérama and the ‘Académie du Jazz’ Award for the best jazz album by a French musician. In 2015, he won the ‘Talents Jazz ADAMI’ award, was named one of the three musicians of the year 2014 by Jazz Magazine, and the CD Nouvelle Vague received the ‘Victoire du Jazz’ award for the best record of 2015.
In 2016 and 2017, he played in two trios for which he wrote part of the repertoire: the trio ‘Modern Art’ founded by Daniel Humair, which was joined by saxophonist Vincent Lê Quang, and the trio ‘Aïres’ founded by pianist Edouard Ferlet and trumpeter Airelle Besson. Both projects have been unanimously praised by critics (Le Monde, Télérama, etc.). In September 2018, Incises Records released his new album French Touch, a quartet featuring Emile Parisien, Fabrice Moreau and Belgian pianist Jozef Dumoulin, based on French electro-pop standards. This album was unanimously praised by the press: ‘CHOC’ Jazz Magazine, ‘Incontournable’ Jazz News.
In 2019, he co-authored and co-produced Daniel Humair's new album Drum Thing with Vincent Lê Quang and Yoann Loustalot. In 2020, he began a new collaboration on stage with pianist Thomas Enhco on the theme of Folk Songs.
Fabrice Moreau began playing the drums self-taught at the age of 14. He also painted. Since 1994, he has accompanied singers such as Patrick Bruel (his half-brother), Jean-Louis Aubert, Alain Souchon, Arthur H, Sophia Charaï (Mouja), and Mathieu Boogaerts, with whom he recorded several albums. Since his youth, he has also been interested in jazz; he took his first steps in this genre with Michel Portal in 2006. This was followed by concerts as a sideman with Flavio Boltro, Pierrick Pédron, Rémi Vignolo, Xavier Richardeau, Éric Legnini, and Bojan Z. He also worked with Guillaume de Chassy (Faraway So Close, 2007), Pierrick Pedron, Bruno Angelini, Alexis Avakian, and Arnault Cuisinier, among others.
Since 2008, Moreau has been a member of Jean-Philippe Viret's trio (with whom he won a Victoires de jazz award in 2011[1]) and the Stéphane Kerecki Quartet. In the field of jazz, according to Tom Lord, he participated in 20 recording sessions between 2000 and 2016, including with Airelle Besson, Laura Littardi, Kellylee Evans, Macha Gharibian, Térez Montcalm, Pierrick Pedron, and Nicola Sergio.[2] In 2019, he released the album Double Portrait (INC/SES) under his own name, which also features his own paintings.Supported by The River Lee, a Doyle Collection hotel