2023-10-13 16:00:18
Henri Texier on double bass, during the Jazz à La Villette festival, at the Grande Halle de La Villette, at the Cité de la Musique, in Paris, September 9, 2018. EDMOND SADAKA/SIPA
“Son of a railway worker and public service”, marked for life by social struggles and the spirit of resistance, Henri Texier is a composer, double bassist and powerful leader of troops. Twenty-two albums as leader, three Travel diaries on the ground, with a legendary group called “the African trio” (Louis Sclavis, sax and clarinets; Aldo Romano, drums and cymbals; plus the photographer Guy Le Querrec), eleven as “co-leader”, around sixty as a “sideman”, a thousand nights in clubs or in concerts, Texier (born in Paris in January 1945) is an essential figure in European jazz. And if we add his long companionship with the saxophonist Phil Woods (1931-2015) and his performances with masters passing through town, a considerable figure in jazz in short.
Read the portrait (in 2022): Article reserved for our subscribers Henri Texier, a trio and all the freedoms
On September 6, at the Philharmonie de Paris, Henri Texier presented his latest opus: An Indian’s Life (disc release, Friday October 13). Nothing of a fashion effect, this is not the style of the Texier house: “Junior” – Sébastien Texier, alto sax and clarinets – has been a member of his father’s groups for a long time, while leading his personal career. Third part of a long artistic journey after An Indian’s Week (1993), then Sky Dancers (2016), An Indian’s Life is announced as a conclusion.
A great scout of young talents, Texier knows how to add strong individuals to his quintet who know how to blend into the whole without giving up their voices, their right voices. Carlo Nardozza (trumpet), Sylvain Rifflet (tenor sax and clarinet) and Himiko Paganotti (vocals) join Sébastien Texier, Manu Codjia (guitar) and Gautier Garrigue (drums), in search of this Indian life that Texier pursues. Balanced arrangements, measured words, the result exudes work well done and the science of the group.
It will come as no surprise that the public presentation was firmly backed by an album with perfect production (sound, studio, space). Following more or less closely – Texier method – the order of the themes with a frank freedom on stage:Apache Woman to the tribute paid to Steve & Carla (Steve Swallow and Carla Bley), passing through a Black Indians dreamer, and this Black and Blue finely orchestrated by Manu Codjia. Black and Bluethe only composition not by Texier, but by Thomas “Fats” Waller and Harry Brooks.
Bass magic
Texier has body. At the back of the stage, without imposing, he distributes words, solos and singing, through the sole magic of his bass and his energy – tempo or winged chorus –, as if his whole life had been spent refining the bass that he will search deep. He will have started alongside the greatest, rubbed shoulders with free and psychedelic pop (with the group Total Issue), made a hell of a tandem with Aldo Romano or Daniel Humair (drummers), and now plays with Gautier Garrigue, from forty-two years his junior (four albums together).
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