Emmanuel Bex – yet in the vanguard on the Hammond B3 organ – returns to the classics of French giant Eddy Louiss. Bex puts together an album in which the spirit, inventiveness, compositions and musicians in top form take the album to the highest level of pure beauty.
Relase Concert, on Tuesday May 6 at the New Morning – Paris.
Organist Emmanuel Bex spontaneously refers to himself as a “child of 1968”. He adds “with a UFO ancestry”. UFO? “Yes, Unidentifiable Flying Object. We both smile at the discovery.
We bumped into him in the lobby of Radio Solidarité (Paris 19th), as he was leaving a show at the beginning of April, and the personality goes on to describe his traits: “rebellious, rebellious, collective, ebullient”.
Boiling hot, we knew it. In concert, Bex doesn’t remain nailed to the aisle like the parish organist. Instead, he’d mishandle the instrument, flashing his chest over the Hammond B3 organ at the audience like Jon Lord, founder of seventies rock band Deep Purple. The body twists and turns. It gives itself. To the hilt. Eyes, fingers, jaw, every part of the body follows. With total commitment, so much so that the front rows expect to see him dive into the crowd in the middle of a solo.
Inhabited, in his own words, by “the obsession to abolish the fourth wall of the stage: the one that separates the artist from the people”. The performances of this “child of ’68” inevitably turn into a total spectacle. He’s one of those jazzmen who can be instantly recognized by his posture. Among the first places in the category…
Bex‘s music envelops the listener through every channel, just as the music of his predecessor Eddy Louiss, whose magnetic presence put people in a trance, once did. Touched by grace at the age of eighteen during a performance in Uzeste by Eddy Louiss, the consecrated pope of jazz organ, Bex has for some time now held the top spot on the keyboard.
My interlocutor is moved: “Stan Getz’s record with Eddy (”Dynasty)“, whose title ‘Our Kind of Sabi’ Bex covers on the CD ‘Eddy m’a dit’ (Label Pee Wee), turned me upside down”.
Not hard to understand.
Listen on Youtube Getz trio playing Dynasty in 1971 at the Ronnie’s Scott in London.
Fabulous, isn’t it?
Despite their musical chemistry, communication between the two organ giants was limited to a few brief exchanges. The situation persisted throughout their two (appreciable) careers. Each followed his own path of popularity. Bex is more likely to claim the influence of American organist Larry Young.
Today, however, Bex takes up Eddy’s torch, with a superior hat-trick to his French predecessor. Tinged with a hint of dismay. The reason? Bex laments: “Ten years after his death (in 2015), no one has yet marked the occasion. No one – apart from his son Pierre Louiss – has shown any desire to celebrate him. It’s sad”. Encouraged by Vincent Mahey, founder of the Pee Wee label, Bex will push a work forward. By sheer force of will. You can’t do it over again.
The born protester describes the spirit he wanted to imprint on the record, a nugget entitled “Eddy m’a dit”. A happy encounter between popular and learned music. Initially relentlessly encouraged by Vincent Mahey (already in charge of the consoles on some fifteen of the improviser’s records), Bex validated and then matured the impulse. Mahey, who was also Eddy’s sound engineer during the latter’s last ten years, works with Bex. The material? An armful of Eddy’s compositions, covering a rich and diverse universe. Three by Bex, including a piece co-written by Minvielle (“Eddy m’a dit”).
Vincent Mahey works tirelessly on the project. The idea of passing on Eddy’s legacy takes shape on the one celebration.
In the end, Bex bounced back body and soul to the producer’s proposal. The collective dance of the record comes to life in the studio, bewitching, veined with emotion, virtuoso.
Flawless. Not a hitch.
The coherence of the whole is seductive. The realization stuns.
Because the personnel (let’s be precise: the fine flower of French jazz), changes with each piece. The musicians redouble their feeling. Surpass themselves. Just look at the line-up: André Minvielle (awarded a prize two months ago at the Académie du Jazz); Dominique Pifarely (what a delicate duet with Simon Goubert on “Colchiques dans les Prés”). An incredible rhythm section: Arnaud Dolmen, Michel Alibo. La Fanfare du Carreau, Fidel Fourneyron‘s trombone, soaring with unheard-of lyricism; and many other figures of French jazz. Everyone greedily lets go and jumps off the ramp.
The tracks? Pieces of lava from the depths of their hearts. The talent of the big names organizes this organic round, between the animality of voodoo, the imagination of contemporary jazz, the heartbreak of blues, and the complicity of folk. Bex, himself, hasn’t looked back. He admits: “The recording was a struggle. I’d never have known how to give my guests instructions on how to develop a piece”. And so the project radiated, flourishing with the enthusiastic inspiration of each individual. Eddy Louiss led his bands with indisputable charisma. For phenomenals albums.
Bex’s beautiful album injects us with the same kind of happiness.
If he were still around, Eddy would surely have wanted to talk to him. At length. Just this once.
Eddy m’a dit as released by the label Pee Wee, on April 11, 2025. It is a Hit Couleurs Jazz ant it belongs to the “Best of the Month” (see ici la sélection)
Le concert de sortie est prévu le mardi 6 mai 2025 au NEW MORNING.
As a bonus, you cn watch the “Making of” the object.
©Photo Header Puls’ Action
Translated with the help of www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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