Guillaume Perret & Electric Epic Paris 19/06

 

A concert review from last week : Guillaume Perret & Electric Epic au Triton (Paris/ Les Lilas) I had discovered Electric Epic at last year’s RIO festival and even so the sound balance was really bad (especially on this concert) Electric Epic was one of the most interesting bands to play. The band consists of band leader Guillaume Perret on Saxes, (Perret has already an impressing career as a sideman and seems also to be more interested in projects and bands then in putting his ego upfront)

Bass player Philippe Bussonet is mainly known for his work with Magma and One Shot. Guitar player Jim Grandcamp has worked with Janick Top and Eric Le Lann and drummer Yoann Serra on drums has played with NHX, Lauent De Wilde and the Orchestre National de Jazz (ONJ).

Unfortunately due to the football championship the audience was rather small. Perret opened the concert with a Bach theme on soprano, taken over by the band and evolving in a mixture of post bop, metal, electronica with a Zeuhl undertone. This would be the “formula” for the rest of the first set, a mix of written parts and soloing. Perret is not only a great player and composer he has a fantastic live sax sound reminding the late Michael Brecker. Bussonett delivers his grounding power bass play, Serra a discreet but highly effective drummer at ease in ternary and binary rhythm patterns and the youngest band member Jim Grandcamp delivers great funky rhythm play and interesting solos. Grandcamp doubles his soloing from time to time on treated cookie monster vocals. The band has apart from the excellent musicianship and tightness a nice tongue in cheek humour. End of the first set and off for a beer. A chat with Pierre, the Camembert bass player and back again for the second set.

The stage is nearly dark and dry ice is wobbling around the instruments…suddenly a small red light appears on the side of the stage and is moving through the spooky fog. Quiet unusual set up for the Triton! This looks more like Spinal Tap or the stage set up, for Grobschnitt’s Solar Music. In fact Perret has stuck some red Christmas lights inside of his tenor sax and is moving like a voodoo high priest over the stage followed by the other band members, hilarious and very Anti-Jazz. During the whole concert and even so all musicians come mainly from the jazz field there is a conscious effort to distance themselves from a certain type of jazz musicians - goal achieved!!

The second set was still better then the first, long curves of tension alternating with very dense polyrhythmic interplay and high speed post bob soloing, with a special mention for the parallel runs of Perret and Grandcamp reminding the Brecker Bros, Bussonet’s precise, powerful and elegant bass play and Serra’s rhythm work. After a deserved applause the band came back for an encore that ended this fantastic concert.

If you have the occasion go see Guillaume Perret & Electric Epic.

BTW The band has just released their first record that you can download on their website for 7 Euros.