Today, New Zealand-Canadian jazz trumpeter Lex French is proud to release his debut album, In the World’s First Summer, out now via Justin Time/Nettwerk. Traces of Miles Davis can be heard throughout the eight-song release, as French cites the seminal jazz trumpeter among his many inspirations. He also takes cues from poetry and paintings that add to the album’s artful nature.
Lex explains in his own words: “In the World’s First Summer is a setting of James K. Baxter’s poem On the Death of Her Body, while Colour Grid is inspired by Paul Klee’s painting New Harmony. Falling Up was a tune that floated around in my head for about 5 years before I figured out how to write it down and keep the spirit of the song intact. A number of the other pieces–Nana, Going Home, V’la L’bon Vent–are arrangements of folk songs from different traditions, while Huancavelica is a new composition inspired by such a tune. My arrangements of these songs are attempts to make sense of this music that reaches through time, and still manages to tell our stories. Bye Bye Blackbird brings us back to Miles and the end of his first quintet with John Coltrane… check out the version on Live from the Olympia and you’ll see the first glimmerings of his second quintet off in the distance, the same glimmering light that reached through time from 1967 to 1999, grabbed hold of me and never let go.”
‘In the World’s First Summer’ marks the debut recording of New Zealand-Canadian jazz trumpet player Lex French on the Justin Time label. Hailed by Radio Canada jazz critic Stanley Pean as “an extraordinary trumpeter”, he is fast becoming a bright star on the Canadian jazz scene, and is a highly in-demand composer and arranger.
This project takes inspiration from Miles Davis’s seminal second quintet in its approach, a group that has influenced so many musicians over the last 50 years. “When I was about 16 years old, in 1998 or ’99, I bought a copy of Miles Davis’1967 album, Miles Smiles,” says French, “and was immediately captivated. Ever since that first listen, I’ve wanted to lead a group that followed in the footsteps of Miles’s seminal second quintet. His quintet was a band that prioritised communication and improvisation, embraced lush and open harmonic soundscapes, and above all, placed the spirit of spontaneity at the center of everything. In order to play with such spontaneity and open lines of communication, it is important that each musician in the group is an exceptional musician in their own right. François Bourassa (piano), Morgan Moore (bass), and Jim Doxas (drums) are all improvising musicians of the highest order who can bring their individual and personal approaches to the music but also function as members of the group in order to create a whole that is great than the sum of its parts.”
Track List:
1. Colour Grid
2. Bye Bye Blackbird
3. Falling Up
4. Lullaby (Nana)
5. Huancavelica
6. In the World’s First Summer
7. Going Home
8. V’la l’bon Vent
