Laurent Dehors – OK Boomer (Orchestre Tous Dehors)

Laurent Dehors is first and foremost a formidable multi-instrumentalist: he plays all the simple reeds (saxophones, clarinets – including the rare contrabass clarinet), the tin whistle, the harmonica, the bagpipes… I’ve never heard him play the kazoo, but I’m sure he can if you ask him nicely!

When he composes and arranges – especially for his orchestra Tous Dehors, which has been around for a few decades now – this love of a wide variety of sounds results in a surge of joyful, rare or more classical sounds, intermingled in a way that is both learned and playful.

For Dehors loves humor – as much as music – without abusing it, and loves life, quite simply, without moderation.

The present 13 -strong big band – which includes small trumpet, trombone and saxophone sections, almost like the great classical models – is a gathering of young and not-so-young instrumentalists, regulars and newcomers, French and Europeans (the excellent British pianist Matthew Bourne and the no less extraordinary Belgian tubist, trombonist and euphonium player Michel Massot, who have been Dehors regulars for ages), men and women (Dehors didn’t wait for the government to force it – follow my lead – to feminize his band), usual and unusual instruments like this sackbut (ancestor of the trombone) or this flamboyant seven-string guitar (yes, yes! ).

Based on compositions and arrangements by their leader, most of which are tasty explorations of the melodic field and song, Tous Dehors takes us outside the formal rigor of certain contemporary orchestras or the “intellectual wank” of others, and leads us, pulling us by both ears with a playful benevolence, towards paths where rhythms and cantabile dance calmly or thunderously without ever sparing nuance.

Here’s a tasty magic potion that’s hard to resist.

When Laurent Dehors presented the program for this CD in a quintet version at Le Triton des Lilas (Paris suburb) last September, the audience left the concert with a broad smile on their lips and stars in their eyes.

It goes without saying that this music is to be followed very closely on record, without waiting… for it to appear live near your home!