Daniel Humair - Modern Art (2017) [Hi-Res]

This Modern Art recording project is an invitation to discover new ideas, and these pieces of music by Vincent Lê Quang, Stéphane Kerecki and myself are not really tributes; I prefer to think of them in terms of correspondences, parallel ideas, encounters, affinities, out-of-the-ordinary phenomena. We’ve chosen several 20th century painters to give us one of two possibilities : either we already had such and such a composition in our pack that matched up with the pictorial world of a certain artist, or we’ve written an original composition inspired by an artist’s work.

All this in spirit rather than literally. For Modern Art is about relationships : between neighbours or others close to us, members of the same family, free associations. I’m both a musician and a painter, but I’m not trying to establish any direct link between these two art forms ; if a link does exist, it’s in the colours of both, but this is not to be taken at face value, as in ‘ Red is for Sonny Rollins, blue’s for Bill Evans ’ that would be all too easy!

Jackson Pollock for White Light, that painting of his on the cover of Ornette Coleman’s album Free Jazz. Alan Davie, because he was a musician, a tenor saxophonist in fact, before becoming a painter. Alan was a close friend of mine and his painting had a major influence on me. Bram Van Velde, whom I knew a little, because François Jeanneau composed a lovely number as a tribute to him that we recorded with the Humair/Jeanneau/Texier trio in 1979. He was a great colorist with a strong personality. Pierre Alechinsky, because he’s a friend who’s close to jazz (Benoît Quersin and Chet Baker lived at his place during the 50s and he was also behind the cover of one of Michel Portal’s albums, Dejarme Solo !). Alechinsky is a great artist and great master of colour with a superb painter’s touch. He’s also a phenomenal printer, maybe one of the greatest. He has a keen aesthetic sense where pictures and images are concerned and knows all the secrets of lithography and etching. Vladimir Velickovic and Yves Klein, because I worked for some films about both of them. Cy Twombly, because he was a decisive influence in my early painting days. Jean-Pierre Pincemin, because he was another friend who was also a great jazz-lover. Paul Rebeyrolle, because he and I were close to each other.

Daniel Humair, drums, percussion
Vincent Lê Quang, tenor & soprano saxophone
Stéphane Kerecki, double bass

Tracklist:
01. Daniel Humair - Alan Davie (4:01)
02. Daniel Humair - Jackson Pollock (3:26)
03. Daniel Humair - Bleu Klein (Pour Yves Klein) (4:45)
04. Daniel Humair - Larry Rivers (1:32)
05. Daniel Humair - Pierre Alechinsky (5:05)
06. Daniel Humair - Cy Twombly (3:42)
07. Daniel Humair - Bram Van Velde (3:47)
08. Daniel Humair - Jean-Pierre Pincemin (1:07)
09. Daniel Humair - Paul Rebeyrolle (3:38)
10. Daniel Humair - Jim Dine (3:45)
11. Daniel Humair - Vlada V. (3:41)
12. Daniel Humair - Bernard Rancillac (1:35)
13. Daniel Humair - Sam Szafran (3:20)