Phil JL Robert – Last Dance for Boogaloo

There are artists who move forward in fragments, and others who patiently build a body of work.

With Last Dance for Boogaloo, Phil JL Robert delivers the culmination of a triptych begun nearly a decade ago—a long-form trajectory in which each record feeds the next. From the very first track, Je Pars, one idea takes hold: that of an energy to be tapped into, almost to be channeled.

That energy is groove—raw, direct, incandescent. No detours here: boogaloo reclaims its most physical dimension, fueled by funk and driven by an irresistible collective momentum. Phil JL Robert situates himself within a tradition, nodding along the way to figures like Miles Davis and Wes Montgomery, yet never becoming confined by them. What matters here is not quotation, but impulse.

The album also takes on the feel of a travel journal. In Qui est cet homme ?, names surface like signposts: Greenwich Village, the Apollo, Herbie Hancock, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole… An entire New York mythology unfurls, almost like a waking dream. You can almost see it. A week in New York distilled into a few minutes, somewhere between clubs, memories, and vividly real fantasies.

The spoken and sung interludes, carried by Melvin Clairault, play a key role in this immersion: they establish continuity, an atmosphere—almost like snapshots of life between two surges of groove. His voice, at once intimate and inhabited, lends the record a narrative dimension rarely found in this genre.

Musically, everything hinges on impact. The guitars move forward with sharp, taut precision, free of unnecessary ornament. The horns, steeped in bop, deliver incisive, vibrant solos. The keyboards introduce another shade—more fluid, sometimes almost airy—opening up space, rekindling momentum, and engaging in a free-flowing dialogue with the rest of the band. Beneath it all, the rhythm section—solid, funky, relentless—sustains the tension from start to finish.

And then there’s what lingers once the record is over. That almost involuntary motion, your head still nodding, your body holding the tempo. As if, for a fleeting moment, you had found yourself swinging somewhere between Havana and New York, carried by the percussion, the breath of the horns, and that Latin warmth that refuses to let go. Latin jazz, funk, groove—in short, boogaloo in its most vital form.

A cycle may be coming to a close. But the energy keeps flowing.

Line Up:

Davy Honnet : drums
Anthony Honnet: organ
Xavier Desandre Navarre: percussion
Philippe Sellam: alto saxophone
Yves Le Carboulec: trumpet, flugelorn
Guillaume Grosso: baritone saxophone, flute
Philippe Gonnand: tenor saxophone
Nicolas Benedetti: trombone
François Morin: trombone
Phil J Robert: guitar
Christophe Sarlin: sound engineer
Phil J Robert : guitar arrangements et compositions
Melvin Clairault: texts and voice
Véronique Mavros: backing vocalist
Christophe Sarlin: sound ingeneer