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CHRISTIAN JACOB
"The concept of my first CD," says Christian Jacob of his stunning
Concord Records debut, Maynard Ferguson Presents Christian Jacob
(CCD4474-2), "was the acceptance of who I really am--a return to
classical music. For years I looked for a personality, for a sound,
and it basically was there in front of my eyes, though I'd gone
through years of training to remove it."
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That said, it is apropos that this pianist should frame his
second hard-swinging Concord date, Tune Lines (CCD-4801-2), with
a pair of anthemic blues lines by Duke Ellington whose ouvre, embodying
the creation of a sound out of the individual voices of his musicians,
speaks to the essence of improvising. Jacob tosses off with a boulevardier's
nonchalance the kind of rampantly imaginative lines that incite
double-takes, every phrase injected with dynamic rhythms and stirring
melody. He does this on standards like the groove-oriented "Things
Ain't What They Used To Be," a 12/8 treatment of Mercer/Ellington's
"In A Mellow Tooe," a conversational "I'm Old Fashioned," a sensitive
"America The Beautiful." And he does it on five never-more-complex-than-they-need-to-be
originals that postulate subtle improvisational challenges, each
of which sounds like a standard.
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| Born in Lorraine, France, in 1958, Jacob
began playing classical music at age 5, and became immersed in the
music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, whose harmonic universe
was influential on jazz. "I was 9 or 10 when I discovered jazz," Jacob
reminisces, "and the very first thing that appealed to me, was the
harmony, the chords. Later, when I learned it was improvised, I couldn't
believe it. After the first time I heard Oscar Peterson, I kept going
to the store to order the part--of course I never received it." "I
had perfect pitch right away, so I had a well-developed ear. Even
in conservatory, I was always known for hearing anything, knowing
the notes, and this type of thing, Though I had a good solfege teacher,
my training was not open to improvisation It was 'learn the piece,
interpret it;' even at that age tbey would basically interpret it
for you. In retrospect that probably taught me what is the basic musical
feel. Later when I was in Paris [at the Conservatoire National Superieur
de Musique], my teacher, Maestro Pierre Sancan, worked on the transmission
of your musical thought into the arm." Jacob continued to play jazz
"as a hobby" during his years of rigorous study, working in combos
in Lorraine and Paris, and began to develop a style. "Dave Brubeck
was my first discovery," he relates, "then Oscar was a big step, another
dimension. I could hear his classical technique, but his personality
is there, too. Wbat he says, he means, and you can hear him having
so much fun doing it. Actually, it became a little problem for me,
because I developed an 'Oscar' type of playing that I had to let go
of." In 1978 Jacob graduated with a First Prize from the conservatory.
He served one year in tbe French Army, did symphonic orchestration
and conducting, and played locally in quartets and trios, before deciding
to pull up stakes and enroll at Berklee in January 1983. "I'd say
the first thing that shocked me when I arrived was that I discovered
I wasn't bad," he laughs. "I began to concentrate 100 percent on jazz,
on improvising and building it slowly into something personal." Describing
his frame of mind during Berklee days, Jacob cites the process of
Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett... and Frederick Chopin. "In classical music,"
he says, "Chopin was always a second nature to me, never a big deal,
like there is no other way to do it. Bill Evans was that way, and
he woke up something inside me. You can hear his sensitivity, the
personal creativity in every one of his lines--he's in the moment
100 percent in every line, every bar. Jarrett also impressed me with
that same creativity in the moment." |
| Gary Burton, a primary mentor, helped Jacob get
a position on the Berklee faculty after a 1985 graduation. "Teaching
jazz is an interesting question, and I started thinking about it when
I got the job," Jacob muses. "I looked at what helped me and tried
to teach it. It was pretty creative. To me transcription is basic,
because you hear what's happening and try to do it. But I would never
assign a particular transcription. I'd ask the student who he likes.
If you're interested, in Monk, then transcribe Monk. I'd try to make
the student conscious of his strengths, and strip it away and see
what's left. Doing your own transcription, inventing your own exercises
is going to be ten times more beneficial." Jacob toured with the introspective
Burton from 1987 to 1989, then joined ebullient big-sound trumpeter
Maynard Ferguson's Big Bop Nouveau Band as Music Director in 1990.
He's spent most of the '9Os writing and arranging for Ferguson and
working on various free-lance projects, as well as playing the occasional
trio gig, and dates with Bostonian Friends, a sextet featuring trumpeter
Herb Pomeroy and drummer Adam Nussbaum. Nussbaum and virtuoso bassist
Steve Swallow are Jacob's co-equal partners throughout Time Lines.
They play with the intuition that long-standing interaction imparts
to a unit, as though breathing synchronously, capacious technique
never impeding poetic, improvised expression of a song's message.
They're a voice, an orchestra of three, every bit up to Ellington's
challenge--so basic and so difficult--of imprinting soul on every
note. TED PANKEN Downbeat, Jazziz, WKCR
What the Jazz community is saying about the new
Christian Jacob CD:
"It's just great!" -McCoy Tyner
"Christian sounds wonderful!" -Chick Corea
"Hearing his tremendous range of musical understanding makes
me realize once again how proud I am to call him an alumous of my
band." -Maynard Ferguson
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