JAZZIN AROUND : World Jazz (2 cds included)
Incredible Diatonic Harmonica in jazz, jazz fusion and world jazz context.
Jazzin' Around and Louisiana are finalist in the ISC competition in Jazz and Instrumental Category :
http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/winners.htm
THE MUSIC : Jazzin Around is a musical journey travelling into the jazz idiom. The first cd has tracks rolling like a live set of modern jazz with funk and fusion accents melting nice and original re-arranged standards with strong compositions. Summertime is bouncing and ultra hip, A Night in Tunisia begins with a very heavy binary groove and features Howard Levy playing better than ever. Jazzin’ Around features Frank Gambale and David Herzhaft sweeps his harmonica licks accordingly ....
The second cd is the “Around†part joyfully taking the listener from middle-east (The Happy Shiek) to french jazz waltz (Rue de Tribourg) which both features accordion wizard Samuel Garcia, to louisiana (Louisiana) and a very sensitive interpretation of How Insensitive where the harmonica brings a warmth and emotion close to the Blues.
Along the tracks David hide his virtuosity behind and inside the music even if when one listens to his arrangement of Paganini Caprice N°5 it’s very difficult to believe he is only playing a blues harp .. the same as Bob dylan .... ;) !
There are numerous guests : Frank Gambale on guitar, Howard Levy on harmonica, Brian Fullen on drums and percussions, Samuel garcia on accordion, Thierry Lecoq on fiddle, François Quillet keyboards ...
The band : Remy Varaine guitars, Thierry Reocreux acoustic and electric bass, Patrick Argentier drums, Mastered at The Masterlabs Inc, Hollywood
QUOTES :
«You got a very good album here, everything feels very well produced »
Robert Hadley (Ray Charles, Diana Krall ...)
“ It was a cool Session, Fun Tune ! †Frank Gambale
“Thanks for letting me be part of your project†Brian Fullen (Shania Twain, Larry Carlton ...)
“ David is a fantastic harmonica player ! †Joe Porcaro (Madonna, Pavarotti ...)
“ Fantastic playing man !†Eric Bibb
“David Herzhaft’s harp playing is excellent ! Very tasteful and exciting. He’s got great technique and it’s a pleasure to hear his ideas so well stated on the harmonica†Charlie Musselwhite
BIO : One of today's most original harmonica player, David Herzhaft was born in 1974 and raised between blues and country-music. His father Gerard Herzhaft is a highly regarded specialist on these music (a dozen of books published and translated around the world). As a kid David’s “heroes†were fenton robinson, joe maphis, byther smith and so on ... As a teenager David met Johnny Shines, Eddie Campbell, Charlie Musselwhite ...
Very early though he was attracted by jazz and due to his work on the overblow technique he developped his own style with time, bands, encounterings (Howard Levy, Joe Porcaro ...)
Since 1991 he performed in many blues, bluegrass, country and jazz bands in most festivals of the same kinds in France, Europe and Canada. With those bands (bluegrass burger, country postal, freeandise ...) he recorded about a dozen cds. In 2001 he made his first solo record on Fremeaux and Associés label "Des Mots d'Harmo". Then he recorded, directed and composed the music of Catfish Blues a cartoon broadcasted on National TV in France that went out on DVD (Warner) and was awarded 1st prize in 2006 at the Animation Festival of Chicago !
Still performing in various blues and country bands, David now aims at developping and playing more his own music. He has also written 5 methods, four of which were published by the biggest french editor HL Music.
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