Stéphane Huchard - Panamerican (2013) [Hi-Res]

On this album, Stéphane Huchard has paved his way from Paris 'Paname' to the Big Apple, sharing the ride with New York's finest. Out of the heart of Brooklyn, pianist Jim Beard, saxophonist Chris Cheek, bassist Matt Penman and guitarist Nir Felder lay the cards flat out on the table playing Huchard's original compositions with subtle elegance. Several tracks step to the beat of the most Parisian of percussionists, the Argentinian Minino Garay while the pianist Éric Legnini, who directed and mixed the album, puts the icing on the cake with his eminently groovy experience.

I had the pleasure of playing with Stéphane Huchard for twelve years, from a Gil Evans’ tour to the final moments of the Big Band Lumière with the National Jazz Orchestra coming somewhere in between. He was the right drummer in the right place at the right time. Meaning, that outside the essential rhythmic qualities and besides the drive needed to manage a large ensemble – which he has – he belongs to that species of drummers who are also conductors – that is rare.

Let me explain. I played with him almost exclusively in large ensembles. I wrote the music and provided the basics for the rehearsals. But once on stage, I knew he was the real boss. If he decided to push the group, or conversely to pull back, make this or that decision, the band had no other choice but to follow him. And everyone in the band loved that. All I had to do was listen and look like I was giving the cues.

Then he switched just to conducting. More precisely he became a conductor and composer. That is to say, he decided to create a group all his own and to compose for it. This time the ensemble was a small one, and that revealed a new facette to his musical personality. He was capable of pulling a new group together, making it work – no surprise there – but he was also writing the music in every sense of the word: composing and arranging it, butstaging it too, which as we all know is a key factor with regard to the music we play. And he continued to develop projects one after the other, all quite different yet uniquely connected and harmonious, so what actually developed was a single project, which is more difficult to do.

The album we are listening to today, the fifth one, lines a little, new jewel up with the others. We easily recognize the stylistic foundations. I lean in particular towards Herbie Hancock, but that’s easy to say since he obviously affects three quarters of the planet one way or another. But what I hear in particular is one by the Warner Brothers Sextet at the beginning of the seventies, which is not the one most often referred to. That said and done, we must add all the modern comfort: asymmetric structures, the use of polyrhythmic patterns that have become Stéphane’s trademark (those who have played with him know what I mean), compositions that have remained modern over time, the sidemen who understand everything about our era. Then there is that unique way of drumming, that I believe is the most sensual one can find within this category of drummers.

Stéphane Huchard, drums, percussion
Nir Felder, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Chris Cheek, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
Jim Beard, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond b-3 organ, keyboards
Matt Penman, double bass
Minino Garay, percussion

Tracklist:
01. Stéphane Huchard - Sleepless (5:02)
02. Stéphane Huchard - Groovy Side (3:45)
03. Stéphane Huchard - Just An Herbie Vore (5:24)
04. Stéphane Huchard - Boogaloo King (3:55)
05. Stéphane Huchard - Bancal Cha-Cha (4:20)
06. Stéphane Huchard - El Minino (6:18)
07. Stéphane Huchard - Find A New World (5:05)
08. Stéphane Huchard - Melodic City (5:27)
09. Stéphane Huchard - Happy New York (4:15)
10. Stéphane Huchard - Dream Solo (1:50)