Albert Bover - A Parisian Affair (2024) [Hi-Res]

I spend most of my life where I was born, in Barcelona. I learned to play jazz mostly in Barcelona and NY, where I lived for a while, and after I keep visiting often to keep having masterclasses with great classical and jazz teachers, like Sophia Rosoff, Fred Hersch, Barry Harris, Jaki Byard, Sal Mosca and others in this last period of my life.

Jazz for me is urban music, the music of big cities with people coming from many different places, with a big respect to the Afro American community that has always being the most important part of this tradition and style. I do remember feeling that energy in NY that makes me understand WHY we play this music, not just how or what to play. And I do experienced this too, living in Paris, since 2019, that I would dare to say, no disrespect for other important cities and communities too, is the first capital of this music in Europe.

After all this time, having the chance to play a bit in the jazz scene in Paris, I thought it was time to make a trio record with great French jazz players.

I’ve meet in the 90’s Philippe Soirat, still one of the best drummers around in the French jazz scene, playing and recording with Carlos Barreto, a great portuguese bass player. I met the great bass player Yoni Zelnik more recently in a sesión at Philippe’s studio and I enjoyed a lot his musicality and I thought that we three sounded very good together. So we went to the Meudon Studio to record the 19th of January, 2023. At the studio they gave me the option to choose between two grand pianos, a Steinway and a Fazioli. Without even going before to test them, I said that I’ll be playing the Steinway. I still think that Steinway and old Bechstein and Blütner are the best pianos of the XXth century. And I’ve been hearing that sound, the Steinway sound in a lot of records of my favorite players on Blue Note records and also many classic music recordings. That is the sound I like to get.

My originals were mostly composed two months before at El Castro Conservatory of Vigo, that’s why two titles are: O Castro and Sol in Vigo, Sun in Vigo, a complicated issue; so I have this name to a 7/4 original composition. The recording went really well. We rehearsed twice before what tunes I wanted to play, a mix of originals and not so played standards. We didn’t do much of two takes mostly l, and even only one of a tune, thanks to the great talent of musicianship of Yoni and Philippe to which I’ m really thankful. After I didn’t edit much, maybe we put together different sections of the two versions of one tune but we didn’t punch a single note, cause then to me, the product wouldn’t sound natural but too fabricated. That’s my sound, how I play, ‘mistakes or not’ in. I want it to be as honest as possible about my playing at that moment, cause, as Paul Bley stated so well, a recording is like a photo or your playing at that moment.

I want to thank Julien Baseres, the sound technician there for being so highly professional. Not a single issue; not even the classical one with hearing well on the headphones. That says a lot of the level of that studio, their people, and probably of the level of sound recording in Paris.

I want to thank too Jordi Pujol for believing and supporting this project,. My first trio record, Esmuc blues, was at Fresh Sound too, with Chris Higgins and Jorge Rossy, and before that in a lot of records as a sideman or in duo with the bassist Horacio Fumero.

I want to thank as well for the mixing at Underpool Studio in Barcelona to Sergi Felipe, musician and sound technician After that we had the chance to present this music a couple of times. Once at the Jamboree Jazz Club in February 2023 with big succes, and at the Cafe Laurent in Paris in December 2024. I’m glad that finally this recording session will be available to other people to listen to is playing this music that motivates me every day to keep studying and practicing to become a better musician and be more able to communicate how I feel about this music.

Thanks to Alba, for sharing this life journey all those years with me, and to Maia, our Parisian daughter, four years old now, inspiration of my original “Song for Maia”.

And thanks to all the people out there, for listening, organizing live music, helping to keep jazz alive.

—Albert Bover