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Jewazz @ Museum of Judaism, Paris, Nov. 2016

This concert at the Museum of Judaism was important for me for three reasons: first, this is a place that embraces Judaism in its cultural and artistic aspects, which I am so attached to. Then, there has been several tributes in memory of my father since he passed. The last one, two months ago, was particularly emotional and beautiful. And finally, this was my first time playing this JEWAZZ project with my friends Grégory Privat, Stéphane Kerecki and Arnaud Dolmen. And they carried that flag with such panache that I will have them on the recording in alternance with my New York band.

Pictures by Wanda Nicot

Becoming associate professor @ Berklee

I recently came across a short discussion with my friend Christophe Jenny, from le Bananier bleu, about my new position as associate professor at the Berklee drug rehab marketing. Here is how it went.

Teaching at Berklee

Christophe: Hi Jacques! So you have finally been taken on to teach at Berklee. Of course it is very particular to you, first because you’ve been studying yourself at Berklee, and second because it is a prestigious institution. How do you feel about that?

Jacques: A couple of years ago, I was approached to do a master class at Berklee College of Music. It was a great joy, because I wanted to reconnect to my alma matter for a while, out of share gratitude: Berklee turned me into a professional musician and really prepared me for the long and fulfilling career I’ve enjoyed. Online betting site is now trendy that’s why a lot of people are into it. If you are interested, visit mobil casino bonus uten innskudd.

Unbeknownst to me, several key faculty members had been following my work all along, and even had classes studying some of my compositions. I finally came to Berklee last February. And a few months afterwards, I was informed by the co-chair of the ensemble department that two full time positions were open. After sending my application, I thought it would be quick process. When I saw months go by, I was convinced that someone else had gotten the nod. I was surprised to be invited for a day of interviews and tests in August. They informed me that I was among five candidates left after the screening of two hundred applications… Then I learned that I was hired shortly before the beginning of the fall semester, flew back to NY from Paris, and took the first train the next day to Boston to sign my contract…

Christophe: What is exactly the content of your teaching? And how do you approach this teaching? Do you have a method? Is it all about the feeling, the playing, authoritative?

Jacques: I teach ensembles. I’m helping young musicians turn little dots on a sheet of paper, into music. I guide them through their learning for the music, with my words, my body language and also by playing with them and demonstrating different ways to play a melody and improvise. Finally we work on arranging the pieces and putting a personal stamp on it…

For this first semester, I mainly teach Jazz music, but I also direct the highly coveted Neo Soul ensemble, for which I just finished auditioning 12 students out of 70. Next semester, I will start teaching Caribbean jazz, which will be a historic first in the school.

Christophe: You have already started to teach. How is the contact with the students? And with the job?

Jacques: All is going for the best. My students are talented and studious! I even have a few rare gems that inspire me every time they play… Teaching comes to me naturally. It’s just the continuation of what I’ve been doing for two decades: lead group of musicians and impulse an artistic direction to an ensemble. I also get along really well with my colleagues, who have greeted me with open arms and shared their invaluable knowledge with me. My only difficulty was conciliating the concerts that were already booked and had me leaving from NY instead of Boston. But for the foreseeable future, I know what to do!

Christophe: How do you insert this new adventure in your musical life?

Jacques: Teaching is also learning. I have to live up to what I’m trying to teach… And also I’m inspired by my students, and their individual voices. In the meantime, my work as a creative artist endures. I just have to be careful to manage the booking of my concerts towards the end of the week on the days that I’m not teaching. I see new beautiful musical adventures on the horizon!

Creole Spirits @ Rendez-vous de l’Erdre, August 2016

Francis Marmande was appointed as special correspondent for “le Monde” to cover the 2016 edition of “les Rendez-vous de l’Erdre” in Nantes. We had the pleasure to present Creole Spirits along with my fellow giant musician Omar Sosa on the extraordinary nautical scene of the festival, in front of more than 7.000 people. Amazing experience!

Marmande_RdVErdre

Here is what Francis wrote :

“Mystère redoublé le soir, sur la scène nautique, une barge équipée de fond en comble : Omar Sosa (pianiste cubain) et Jacques SchwarzBart (fils d’André et Simone, écrivains juifs guadeloupéens) recréent avec chanteusesprêtresses et percussionnistes la magie du vaudou haïtien et de la santería cubaine. Cela pourrait  être un simulacre chic. Pas du tout : c’est Coltrane, Charles Lloyd, Archie Shepp continués par d’autres moyens.

Omar Sosa ne joue pas comme les Cubains pressés de s’intégrer à la World music. « J.SB » a fait quinze ans de classes dans les clubs new yorkais sans pardon – il sortait de Sciences Po et d’un début dans la préfectorale –  avant d’aborder, grâce au producteur Daniel Richard, ce qu’il souhaitait aborder . Son aiguisé comme une lame de samouraï, il y est en plein. Et présentant la prêtresse Marta Galarraga « à [son] extrême gauche », il précise, souriant, « un côté qui [lui] plaît ». Morale : ou les choses se simplifient et tournent mortifères ; ou elles se compliquent, et tout devient possible. Le concert, la cérémonie, la communion durent deux heures. Deux heures de lyrisme, de force, de transmission, et au centre, un coeur nucléaire d’une étrange poésie venue d’ailleurs.”

Chasing the Voodoo: My profile @ Berklee Today, by Ron Reid

Bassist and steel drummer Ron Reid is an associate professor in the Contemporary Writing and Production Department at Berklee. We just met after my recent clinic at Berklee, and the interview has just shown up in the last edition of Berklee Today!

Chasing the Voodoo: My profile @ Berklee TodayChasing the Voodoo

Talk with Jacques Schwarz-Bart ’94, and you’ll find yourself captivated by his passion for French-Caribbean roots music and his dedication to exploring the mystery of his native Guadeloupe’s gwo ka tradition and the spirituality of Haitian music. In this quest he has found his artistic deliverance.

I had the opportunity to talk with him after his recent clinic at Berklee’s David Friend Recital Hall. Many years ago we played in Souvenir—a short-lived Boston-based Caribbean dance band—and we’ve crossed paths at a few festivals over the years.

Schwarz-Bart is a saxophonist, composer, and recording artist who came to the saxophone much later than most. His first instrument was the gwo ka drum, and African, barrel-shaped hand drum unique to Guadeloupe. Jacques credits his parents, Guadeloupe-born mother Simone and his French-Jewish father, André—both writers— for taking him to the countryside’s sugarcane fields at night to experience the léwòz. But the traditional music of Guadeloupe, léwòz, was disparaged by the guardians of morality as “the devil’s music.”

“I am thankful that my parents were not thinking that way and brought me in to the felds in the darkness of night,” Schwarz-Bart says. “The mixture of music in the tropical night, the stars above our heads, and the blackness of the night created an intensity… a powerful experience. I could see the spirits dancing around us. For me, the connection between music and spirituality was established right away.”

Schwarz-Bart came to Berklee in 1990 at the ripe age of 27, after leaving the security of a job as an assistant to a French senator. He’d taught himself the saxophone over the course of the previous three years before coming to Berklee. He had let his youthful, muscular frame diminish in order to reshape it around the instrument. “There were fingerings that were not compatible with the way my muscles worked and I had to compete with youngsters who had grown up with that instrument,” he says. At the college, Schwarz-Bart found camaraderie performing with fellow students Ruben Rogers ’94, Teodross Avery ’95, Charles Craig ’93, and Darren Barrett. He would later play in bands led by Bob Moses, Danilo Perez ’88, Alex Alvear, Alain Mallet, and ensemble department chair, Ron Savage.

During his Berklee clinic, he stressed the importance of daily practice and developing the mental toughness and perseverance to reach your goals. “There are principles that apply to any art, and one of them is discipline,” Schwarz-Bart said. “I saw my parents write faithfully and consistently everyday for years, and I understood that if I was going to embrace an artistic path in my life, discipline would have to be part of it.” After humorously describing his early living circumstances in New York, he related a story about ignoring all sound advice and physical restraint when he forced himself onstage during a club performance by Chucho Valdes and Roy Hargrove. “I played the best I could at that moment and two weeks later Roy called me to join his band on tour.”

Residencies in the bands of Chucho Valdéz, Danilo Pérez, Roy Hargrove, and D’Angelo confrmed Schwarz- Bart’s resolve to realize his vision as a bandleader playing his own music. “Making a living [in] music is already such a tough road,” he said as he described times when he hid behind his hair and beard to disguise himself in playing situations that he felt obliged to accept just to keep working. “I learned to smile and observe the different types of leadership. I made a note about not wanting to be the type of bandleader as those I sometimes worked for.” He also cautioned that no gig is too big until you can sustain yourself, playing your own music.

Schwarz-Bart has followed that path, which ultimately led him to the Gwo ka Project with which he has recorded the albums Soné Ka-La and Abyss for Universal Music France. He has also recorded Rise Above for Dreyfus Music with his wife, Stefanie McKay. It veers from his roots-music trajectory toward a New York urban groove blended with Caribbean overtones. He credits his work with D’Angelo as being influential on his approach to phrasing.

 Jazz Racine Haiti (Motema Music, 2014)—his most recent project—is at the crossroads of jazz and Haitian sacred music. Schwarz-Bart enlisted an eclectic group of kindred spirits including two voodoo priests: the great singer Erol Josué, and percussionist Gaston Bonga, who together ground this critically hailed recording.

I asked how much of the recording represents the musicians’ familiarity and experience with the music as opposed to his writing. “The writing and the conception are first and foremost,” he says. “I have been able to play this music successfully with an array of different bands and I did it [here] with students today. The concept is clear. Being the son of two great writers, I learned how to conceive and express things clearly. It’s an advantage in being able to convey to my collaborators what I expect of them.”

Jazz Racine Haiti’s postlude features a duet between Schwarz-Bart and singer Rozna Zila performing the lamenting “Legba Nan Baye.” “I felt that on a record where a lot of the substance was generated by the orchestral texture of the different horns interacting with the voice, harmonies, arrangements, modulations, and more, it would be ftting to conclude with the ultimate sobriety of two voices— the saxophone and the human voice—talking to one another.”

With his Jewazz Project, Schwarz- Bart honors his paternal heritage by taking Jewish liturgical music and “reshaping the structure adding interludes and nuggets for the heart and soul.” Also in the works is a CD recording of the Creole Spirits Project, a blend of modern jazz and Cuban and Haitian spiritual traditions in collaboration with pianist Omar Sosa, propelled by a 2015 performance featuring their respective ensembles. A global visionary and restless spirit, Schwarz-Bart is inspiring the current generation of players exploring the nexus of traditional musical forms and jazz expression.

Ron Reid – Berklee Today – Summer 2016

Red Sea Jazz festival interview

Red Sea Jazz interview for the Jerusalem PostFollowing my recent concerts at the Red Sea Jazz Festival, Barry Davis, from the Jerusalem Post, has been writing down a long interview we made prior to the festival.

Blowing every which way, at the Red Sea Jazz Festival

By BARRY DAVIS / The Jerusalem Post / 1.28.2016

Run your eye down the list of acts lined up for the forthcoming winter edition of the Red Sea Jazz Festival (February 11-13) and besides the great Art Shop that will be present you may very well stop, if not balk, on one name in particular. Jacques Schwarz-Bart is pretty impressive moniker in itself, with seemingly manifold cultural derivations, but it is the description of his artistic enterprise that is the real attention grabber.

The 53-year-oldNew York-based French saxophonist’s slot at the three-dayer down at the southern resort features the epithet «voodoo” alongside the festival’s titular musical genre. Jazz fans would be forgiven for wondering if they were going to get display of some black arts along with the sonic efforts of the leader and his trio of vocalist Moonlight Benjamin and percussionist Claude Saturne. Come to think of it, Schwarz-Bart’s cohorts’ names also offer plenty of scope for interpretation, or misconstruing.

“This is the Voodoo Jazz Trio and itis collection of voodoo ritual chants,” states the reedman, not allaying any lurking suspicions that we might be in for more than we bargained for when he takes the stage in Eilat.

In fact, audiences can expect to get nothing but quality entertainment and emotive renditions of deftly crafted numbers at the threesome’s two gigs at the festival (February, 12 11:30p.m. and February, 13 5:45 pm).

“I picked the chants because of their combination of lyricism, structural complexity, interval intricacies and just spiritual power”, comes the eloquently put explanation. “We have performed these songs without any harmonic support. This is as naked and sober as it gets, with two voices and percussion.”

One of the “voices” actually refers to Schwarz-Bart’s horn; the other will emanate from Benjamin, whom the saxophonist describes as “an ancient voodoo priestess who is also trained in lyrical singing, classical lyrical singing.

“Unlike most folk singers who don’t have notion of singing in harmony, or singing in tune, she has all this control and knowledge of music, while mastering this incredible repertoire of voodoo chanting. That is often uplifting and source of light.”

By all accounts, we are probably also in for something of an eye opener.

“I realize that most people have never heard voodoo chants,” he notes. “Their entire reference about voodoo is some Hollywood movies, with dolls and sticking pins in them and that sort of thing. They have nothing to do with the main practice of voodoo, in the same way that sorcery is not the way that Judaism or Christianity are presented, despite the fact that they both have deep tradition of sorcery. The West has been trying to put spin on black culture for longtime. That’s nothing new.”

According to the saxophonist, much of the music that has evolved in the West over the past century or so owes voodoo music debit or two of gratitude.

“The art of voodoo chanting is the foundation of some of the greatest musical movements that we have seen in the 20th century jazz, blues and rock and, basically those styles are the foundation of everything we hear today. There’s no pop singer that doesn’t use blues. There is no folk singer, no Third World singer that doesn’t use the blues. Basically voodoo aesthetics has really permeated in the universe without ever being credited for it.”

Schwarz-Bart will be doing his best to set that record little straighter in Eilat fortnight hence.

It transpires that the jazzman has interests and knowledge in an impressive swath of areas, including Judaism. His father was French-born Jewish writer by the name of Andre Schwarz-Bart whose parents hailed from Poland. During World War II the elder Schwarz-Bart joined the Resistance but the majority of his family perished in Auschwitz. He later wrote novel called The Last of the Just that traces the story of Jewish family from the time of the Crusades to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. The work brought the writer prestigious French literary award Prix Goncourt, which has been awarded annually since 1903 for “the best and most imaginative prose work of the year, «and in 1967 the novelist received the Jerusalem Prize from mayor Teddy Kollek.

Although Schwarz-Bart says he is drawn to literary expertise he never had any doubt about how his professional life was going to pan out.

“Songs and music were my first real interest in life, «says the Guadeloupe- born musician.

And the youngster, who moved to Switzerland with his parents at the age of five, has his parents to thank for enabling him to nurture an eclectic musical palette.

“I wore out their entire vinyl collection,” he recalls. “They had records with music by Prokofiev, Mozart, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and the gospel group called the Golden Gate Quartet.”

That was augmented by live performance of locally-fetgeendres.

“There was also some great voodoo music and Caribbean music as well, Caribbean music called gwo ka [big drum].”

“The hand drum was my first instrument,” he recalls. “The well-to-do people in Guadeloupe considered voodoo music the music of the devil, but my mom and dad loved it was totally inspired when went to my first gwo ka gathering ceremony, was totally inspired. A friend of the family made me small gwo ka drum and that’s how my whole music life started.”

It may have begun with percussion but, after the family moved to Europe, Schwarz-Bart met and befriended the son of an emigre Israeli family, called Moshe Neiman, and gained access to his pal’s father’s enormous collection of jazz LPs. The youngster duly taped as many records as he could and took up the guitar.

“I got all my harmony understanding from guitar, which later turned out to be crucial when started playing saxophone.”

There were still more twists and turns to be negotiated along the long and winding road to where he is today. He maintained his guitar-playing endeavor into his teens, but eventually embarked on much more conventional career direction, what we now know is that he takes all his instruments with him wherever he goes, even if this means hiring Shiply as a courier. He enrolled in law and government studies and was heading for safe job in the service of the French government before he decided that music was, after all, his life. The epiphany occurred, naturally enough, in Guadeloupe, when Schwarz-Bart was 24.

“I was on vacation there and friend of my mother’s had saxophone. I was fan of jazz saxophone players like John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins. I asked her if could try it.”

It was love at first blow.

The young man also made strides at an incredibly rapid pace.

“Funnily enough, within five or 10 minutes I could play melodies. Nobody in the room believed I had never played the saxophone before. As matter of fact, one of the guests there gave me gig the next day.”

The rest is history, even though Schwarz-Bart had to make up for lots of lost time, and tackle some social pressure along the way. He enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston at the relatively grand old age of 27 and took quite lot of flak from his much younger fellow students.

“Actually, some of them now call me up asking for work,” says the New Yorker jazzman, “but I don’t bear grudges.”

Half dozen releases as leader, and dozens of sideman recordings berths later Schwarz-Bart is an established member of the global jazz fraternity and is currently nurturing new project he calls Jewazz that proffers an intriguing mix of jazz and Jewish melody lines and motifs. It is safe to say that the saxophonist’s shows at Eilat should keep the members of the audience suitably riveted.

For more information about the Red Sea Jazz Festival: http://redseajazz.co.il

Stephanie McKay @ Joe’s Pub for the benefit of NYers Against Gun Violence

joespub_013I’d really like to invite you come hear the wonderful Stephanie McKay & the Call, this next Saturday Nov. 14th, 7pm, at Joe’s Pub NYC. She’ll be performing for the benefit of ‘NYers Against Gun Violence’ association (NYAGV), and I’ll be her guest. NYAGV is setting up ReACTION, an Education Fund’s school program for youth living in New York City communities plagued by gun violence.  ReACTION helps students resist guns and gun violence through hands-on activities and a year-long curriculum focusing on personal responsibility, group interactions and community engagement.

As you surely know, Stephanie McKay is a singer, songwriter, musician, and collaborator, hailing from the Bronx, New York City. Her career has spanned over 20 years, during which time she has collaborated with artists including Anthony Hamilton, Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), Talib Kweli, DJ Spinna, Toshi Reagon and Big lovely, Katalyst, Tricky, Carl Hancock-Rux, Kelis, myself and numerous others.

She was featured on the standout hit “Forget Regret” from Roy Hargrove’s Grammy-nominated RH Factor (alongside such luminaries as D’Angelo, Anthony Hamilton, Erykah Badu, Karl Denson, Pino Palladino, and Common) and completed a world tour with keyboardist Amp Fiddler, as well as Drugs, which also included members from the legendary Parliament Funkadelic.

Her debut solo album McKay (2003, Go! Beat/Polydor/Universal) produced by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and Tim Saul, was released in Europe and garnered major critical acclaim. In the UK, The Independent called the album “…the best soul debut since Macy Gray” and Black Beat referred to McKay as “…the savior we need to drag rhythm back to its roots.” Two singles, “Tell Him” and “Take Me Over” and two videos were released from the album and received heavy rotation on the radio and MTV Europe.

Her follow up album Tell It Like It Is (2008, Pias/Muthas of Invention) was released worldwide and McKay went on to perform at such premiere European festivals as Glastonbury (UK), North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), and Solidays (France) as well as two national tours in Australia (with Amp Fiddler and Katalyst) and an unprecedented seven-night stand in Greece.

Equally at home on the stage or in the studio, Stephanie performs regularly in the Northeastern United States and Europe, and is a frequent guest vocalist with collaborators including her husband Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Boca 45, and others.

After a multi-year hiatus, Stephanie returns with a much-anticipated new collaboration and expected 2015 album release in the works. On other news, checkout this blog about armed security jobs.

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Stephanie McKay @ Iridium

Stephanie McKay @ IridiumI’m proud to invite you to a great evening of jazz and soul music
with my beloved and magnificent

Stephanie McKay

She will be leading an all stars band
featuring Aaron Goldberg (pno), Ben WIlliams (b),
Jonathan Barber (dms) and myself on saxophone.I’m looking forward to seeing you at

Iridium Jazz Club

Broadway and 51th street
New York, NY 10019Next Thursday September 24, at 8pm & 10pm