Biréli Lagrène – Elegant People

Biréli Lagrène has many strings to his bow. He was originally, and frequently since, heard playing in the gypsy style, which is his primary mode of playing, from his teenage on.

He then practiced jazz fusion, among others with Jaco Pastorius. Later, he was heard in a duo with Sylvain Luc on acoustic guitar. But at the same time, Lagrène has always shown a taste for standards and for a style influenced by guitarists such as Wes Montgomery or George Benson.

And it is to this repertoire that he devotes himself on this new quartet album. Apart from four themes of his own (one of which was inspired by John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”), the repertoire of this opus consists of compositions by Wayne Shorter, Johnny Mandel or Ivan Lins. Supported by Jean-Yves Jung‘s acoustic and electric keyboards, Lagrène displays his virtuoso and warm playing with a sound that is sometimes clear, sometimes more fleshy, but always remarkably full.

The interaction with Jung is rich, and you can feel that the two musicians share the same love of melody and groove.

William Brunard‘s double bass and Raphaël Pannier‘s drums provide the two soloists with refined or more energetic support to great effect, and we follow the developments of this splendid quartet with constant pleasure.

Biréli Lagrène confirms his place at the forefront of today’s guitarists, both a lover of tradition and blues and always innovative, whose fresh playing style is completely timeless.