AROMES COMPLEXES (vinyl)

Description

For his new album, double bassist and composer François Poitou invites instinctive rapper Pumpkin. An ambitious artistic shift for the man who had made his mark with a “jazz made of strings and refinement.” A successful union, with a stunning result. After two albums acclaimed by critics and blending jazz with chamber music (Funambule, 2017; Le sec et la lune, 2019), François Poitou makes a real change of direction with Arômes complexes, inviting us to a singular marriage between jazz and rap. This is not a fusion, like so many we have heard. Here, rapper Pumpkin’s flow blends finely into the compositions, as a singer’s voice would. François Poitou is familiar with the hip hop of the 1990s-2000s, whose leading figures he loved as a teenager. With Arômes complexes, he conceived his compositions by considering “rap interventions as solos in the same way as those of the trumpet and saxophone,” he notes. To meet the challenge, he wisely called on Pumpkin who, beyond her striking duo with beatmaker Vin'S da Cuero and features with DJ Vadim, Guts, Gaël Faye, Sly Johnson or China Moses, had worked with a jazz troublemaker, cornetist and vocalist Médéric Collignon. “What I appreciate about Pumpkin is the rhythmic precision, the quality of the lyrics and the themes addressed.” For the Nantes native by adoption, “the exchange was genuine and stimulating.” She adds: “I like challenges that take me out of my comfort zone. I identified with François Poitou’s high standards and those of the other members of the quartet.” A graduate of the École supérieure des Arts et Métiers, he worked as an engineer for a few years. It may be no coincidence that among his first inspirations was another math-minded artist, Herbie Hancock. Like the visionary pianist, he decided to leave his engineering job to devote himself to music. There is poetry in mathematics as in music. And there is mathematics in music... In the art of the double bassist, composer and arranger, we find the precious embrace of rigor and mystery. We savor the piece Arômes complexes, which extends the metaphor of wine and its bouquet to evoke the complexity of human beings. “The Deux pieds series (tracks 1, 2, 3 and 4) gives us the opportunity to take stock, to carry out an introspection. A simple look at our feet tells us where we have placed them. This place where we find ourselves says something about our environment, it influences our mood, our state of mind...” His music speaks for itself, without resorting to words. It conveys emotions, sensations, through a cinematic dimension. It cultivates suspense and carries dramaturgy within it.