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La Campagnie des Musiques à Ouïr¹

Don’t be misled by the long list of - not exactly - instruments, there is no question of any DIY activity being used in the music of this trio, which provides a total audio-visual experience. Behind the extravagance of three of the most talented young French musicians Charolles, Gastard and Monniot, there exists an inherent exceptional musicality. The three of them produce the sounds of a 25-piece orchestra, and have a repertoire that extends from popular folk numbers, via pop music, to musette and their own compositions.
¹Equivalent to something like “Provincial Campaign of Company for Music Worth Listening To”, but with an untranslatable play on words by combining the words compagnie = company, and campagne = campaign, or provincial [translator’s note].


Denis Charolles
(watering-can, gravel, anything that can be struck, trumpet, mouthpiece of instruments, friendly chirping)

Began practising on drum kits to Beatles and Eddy Mitchel numbers, and later in rock bands in the suburbs of Rouen. His mother used to listen to Paco Ibanez, his father to Dizzy Gillespie, his brother to Callas, and his sister to Santana, while they all listened together to Brassens...

This was followed by long days spent studying electronics (technical university diploma, bachelor’s and masters degree), with rehearsals and concerts at night-time.

“Given that music always got me out of trouble, I decided to make it part of my life, and we have an unending love of each other. I constantly lead the lifestyle of a loafer, and come across the paths of other mortals, and sometimes even cling onto them. For example I have been playing with Little Bob, Christophe Monniot and Tous Dehors for ten years. And then there’s La Campagnie des Musiques à Ouïr, which I have grown very fond of and where I feel able to experiment with my most personal concerns, bringing me closer to solo music.”

He has an uncommon sense for getting involved in coming up with long-term concepts, i.e. shaping forms generated from the mutual collision of ideas, collective thinking and doubts. He has therefore assisted in the birth of artistic experiments in which dance, music, history, poetry and architecture are combined, such as a spectacular performance of "Steam Opera" held on industrial land at Sotteville les Rouen on 11 November 2000, the opening of Beurshowburgh BIS in Brussels in February 2001, the Occupation of Soweto Community College, South Africa, and the Occupation of Evreux Cultural House on 1 June 2002, or the terro(i)rista² Occupation of regions in the middle of nowhere, brought about with the interaction of schoolchildren, local performers and the local population.

Over this long working period destiny has brought him into contact with people such as:
Yvette Horner, Bernard Lubat, Eric Lareine, Geoffrey Oryema, Noir Désir, Michel Portal, Mariette Lancelevée, Bernard Morel, Bertrand Couloume, Patrick Tandin, André Minvielle, Michel Richard, Jean-Paul Chazalon, Gisèle Gréau, Bryan May (Queen), Alex Duthil, Southide Johnny, Régis Sénécal, Léda Le Querrec, Fabien Barontini, Fara C., Roger Nicquel, Jean-Christophe Averty, Serge Adam, Marc Ducret, JJ Holiday, Southside Johnny, Kenny Margolis and many more...
²Untranslatable play on words by combining the words terroir = provincial, or native land, and terreur = terror [translator’s note].


Christophe Monniot
(alto, baritone and soprano saxophone, pipes, singing and various machinations)

Christophe became familiar with music as a small child when learning the trumpet. He later studied the classical saxophone at music academy, followed by advanced musical studies and diplomas: in 1995, with a bachelor’s degree in music at Rouen University in his pocket, he sat for entrance exams to the CNSM (Conservatoire) in Paris. He was admitted to the Jazz Department, where he had the good fortune to learn from François Janneau and J.F. Jenny-Clark, and attend masters courses held by Ornette Colleman and Roy Haynes.

In 1998 Christophe was unanimously awarded the first prize diploma of the Jazz Faculty, and continued the momentum by taking first prize in the la Défense nationwide jazz soloist contest.

Alongside his studies he founded Campagnie des Musiques à Ouïr with Denis Charolles in 1995, and thereby developed a capacity for continual entertainment and constantly changing music.

The following year he came across and played with Compagnie Lubat, before playing at P.O.M with Patrice Caratini in Jazz Ensemble, with Daniel Humair, Antoine Hervé and his Big Band, and with Fred Palem and Sacre du Tympa.

Eventually he was ready to form his own group, Monio Mania, with five artists coming from very different musical horizons. While getting involved in composing and reworking, he expanded his knowledge of harmony and counterpoint.

He has not shut out any influences - from the fun of musette, through Duke Ellington, to Ligeti -, and especially not in respect of popular folk music.


Fred Gastard
(bass saxophone, large synthesizer, imaginary monophonic, fur and giant siphon)

Born in Brittany in 1977. Frédéric began by studying the saxophone, learned the classical saxophone, chamber music, soleggio, and music analysis at St Brieuc (Cotes d’Armor) musical academy, and then at Cergy Pontoise (Val d’Oise) secondary music academy, before studying at CNSM in Paris from Claude Delangle (saxophone), David Walter, Pierre Laurent Aimard, (chamber music), and Patrick Moutal (Indian music), while fellow students in the Jazz and Improvised Music Department included Daniel Humair, Riccardo del Fra, and Glenn Ferris...

By the unanimous decision of the saxophone examination committee he obtained an excellent class advanced diploma in 2001, and won the first prize for chamber music in 2002, based on a unanimous decision of CNSM in Paris.

Paris and the Conservatoire provided him with the opportunity of working with musicians representing various genres, and getting involved in modern music improvisation, and current projects. He performed under the direction of Juraj Vacuha, David Robertson and Faycal Karoui, formed part of the Axone saxophone quartet, and came across Django Bates, Laurence Cottle, Christophe Monniot, Denis Charolles, Rémy Sciuto, Fred Pallem, Vincent David, and André Minvielle...

Between 1994 and 2001 he taught the saxophone at Lannion (22) and Osny (95) musical academies.

As a composer and saxophonist, he primarily plays bass, tenor and soprano saxophone. He makes records and plays in France and elsewhere with Campagnie des Musiques à Ouïr, and Fred Pallem Sacre du Tympan, as well as with Mélosolex and Dentelles à Mamie, for whom he writes music and reworks original numbers.


Béla Szakcsi
(piano)

Béla Szakcsi appeared in the fifties and sixties in guitarist Andor Kovács’ group, but by the mid-sixties he was performing with his own band. In 1970 he won second prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival with Aladár Pege’s quartet.

From Zürich to Warsaw, from Nürnberg to Belgrade, from North America to Asia he has performed at the most prominent festivals. As the soloist of Special EFX created by George Jinda and Chieli Minucci, Szakcsi featured on eleven albums as composer and performer, and it was thanks to these that in the middle of the eighties he was able to make a contract with the American company GRP (Sachi, 1988; Mystic Dreams, 1989; Eve of Chance, 1992; Straight Ahead, 1994). Szakcsi’s qualities as a composer and performer were appreciated by Chick Corea, and he has played with great figures in the genre, such as Carmen Jones, Frank Zappa, Art Farmer, Mark Ledford, Dave Weckl, Omar Hakim, Terri Lyne Carrington, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Jay Leonhart, Gerald Veasley, Victor Bailey, Randy Roos, Attila Zoller, Rodney Holmes, David Sanchez, Bob Mintzer, John Patitucci and Jack DeJohnette.

Historically, it is Szakcsi whom we must credit with the spread of fusion jazz in Hungary: from the beginning of the seventies, he taught jazz piano at the Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music. In the meanwhile he was also occupied with collecting Gypsy folklore and forming it into stage works.

Over the last ten years he has immersed himself in the study of the compositions of György Kurtág, György Ligeti, Péter Eötvös and Pierre Boulez, resulting in the album In one breath (BMC CD 061) made with the violinist Lajos Kathy Horváth, in which he pays a homage to these composers in his improvisations.

In 2004 he recorded Na dara! (BMC CD 103) with the drummer Peczek Lakatos and the bass player György Orbán, with Roma singers lending an authentic colour to the trio.

The Hungarian State recognised his work by awarding him the Liszt Prize in 1987, the Artist of Merit award in 2002 and the Kossuth Prize in 2005.


Gábor Gadó
(guitar)

Gábor Gadó started his musical studies on the violin, then switched to the classical guitar. He graduated in 1983 from the Jazz Department of the Béla Bartók Music Conservatory as a student of Gyula Babos, following which he featured in the bands of the vanguard of Hungarian jazz musicians.

Amongst his first partners were Róbert Rátonyi Jr, Ferenc Snétberger, Attila László, Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, Elemér Balázs and Kálmán Oláh. Later he appeared more and more frequently in international line-ups, for example alongside Gerald Veasley, Randy Roos and George Jinda.

The first band he organised was called Joy, and recorded an album entitled Cross cultures. In 1991 he released Special time, the first album under his own name, then toured Europe with Nikola Parov. In 1995 he moved to France, then briefly lived in London too. After five years the Gábor Gadó Quartet was formed in Paris: Matthieu Donarier (tenor saxophone), Sébastien Boisseau (double bass), Joe Quitzke (drums).

The guitarist/composer appears with his French and/or Hungarian partners, or even solo, on several BMC albums, among others the outstandingly successful Orthodoxia (BMC CD 083), or Gábor Winand’s Corners of my mind (BMC CD 057), the latter chosen by the French magazine Jazzman as one of the best albums of the year in 2002. His next BMC release Psyche (BMC CD 120) comes out end of the year.

In 2003 his achievements earnt him the Bobby Jaspar prize, awarded by the French L’Academie du Jazz each year to the European jazz musician of the year – the highest international recognition of his work to date. He is a sought-after guest at French and international festivals and clubs, and has performed at the following places: Festival de Châteauroux, Festival de Jazz de Montlouis/Loire, Rencontres internationales de Jazz de Nevers, Festival Crest Jazz Vocal, Festival de l’Hotel d’Albret (Paris), Tete Montoliu Jazz Festival (Barcelona), Festival de Jazz de Souillac, Festival de Jazz de Vitrolles, Fete de la musique de Téhéran, Mittel Europa Jazz Festival de Schiltingheim and the Paris Jazz Festival.


Balázs Bujtor
(violin)

Violinist Balázs Bujtor, leader of Danubia Youth Orchestra, contributing formerly on Alban Darche's album Stringed (BMC CD 104) as member of RTQ String Quartet, integrates on La manivelle magyare his classical skills and excellent talent for improvisation.