The Sixth Jump

His work shows a deep connection with both the modern jazz piano lineage (Monk, Waldron, Ibrahim etc.) and elements of the classical avant-garde (particularly Cage, Messiaen and Ligeti), and combines these influences and others such as pygmy polyphony into a truly unique style. This is music that readily communicates on a physical and often an emotional level but reveals ever-more-subtle aspects as you get to know it.

A word about Benoît’s collaborators here: bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel, known for his work with Steve Lacy, was also a kora player, a passionate advocate of traditional Manding music, and for many years led his own West African group in Paris (Waraba, Songlines). Avenel and Paris-based Congolese drummer Emile Biayenda set up wonderfully unpredictable grooves. The trio meshes not just rhythmically but timbrally, as Benoît describes: “Emile and Jean-Jacques both have a magnificent sound, they are masters, a source of inspiration. What I love in the alchemy created by Emile and Jean-Jacques is their relation in the hierarchy of cycles, it is very free, very intuitive. The timbres create other cycles, subterranean cycles, the effect obtained is mysterious.” In this trio Biayenda uses two snare drums and two gourds, and an ankle shaker is attached to the bass drum.

Another notable feature are Steve Argüelles’ remixes (“Drum Page”, “Piano Page”, “Bass Page”). Using material from the trio multi-tracks, they examine the three instruments individually with a kind of improvisational spirit; Benoît calls them “rather cinema-like, these sorts of elliptical narrations.”

Benoît Delbecq Trio
Benoît Delbecq, Piano
Jean-Jacques Avenel, Bass
Emile Biayenda, Drums & Percussion