Mario Stantchev - Jazz Before Jazz 2 (Live autour de la musique de Louis Moreau Gottschalk) (2020)

Originally, a dusting of this amazing American composer who seduced Chopin, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, born in 1829 in New Orleans. A genius that disappears early in 1869, leaving behind an essential work, a real link in the history of contemporary music. Because of its compositions and its spirit of synthesis, one hears there the mixture of the time, and more particularly the romantic influence which meets the traditional musics. He notably witnessed the excitement of Congo Square.

It is also the meeting between Mario Stantchev, trained in Bulgaria at the Russian piano school, who emancipates himself and flees his country for jazz, and Lionel Martin, who seeks the essence of music without borders in Ethiopia or in the roots of Punk. Both feed current jazz charged with a history which was already a subject in the 19th century: interbreeding, influences, roots, spontaneity and creation.

After six years of concerts, the duo continues their quest for authenticity, with ever more complicity - and this can be seen in the latest interpretations of their album "Jazz Before Jazz". The duo played last May at the Lyon Opera, this magic moment could be captured, a "live" disc is in preparation.