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Ronan Robert and
his jazzmen played yesterday evening at the Théâtre de Cornouaille -
it was something completely apart. For three years now the Ronan Robert
Réunion group has woven new links between traditional and improvised
jazz.
Ronan Robert likes variety. He was once accordion player for Carre Manchot,
but after 15 years of fest-noz he decided in 1992 to expand his repertoire
with Cocktail Diatonique, Yann-Fañch Perroches' group. Three concerts
with Richard Galliano convinced this child of La Baule, and son of a
piper, to move into the jazz arena. The lure of brass overtook him,
and the diatonic accordion player has since created an eclectic group
in which his accomplice Christopher Caron plays oboe along with five
other jazzmen.
The result is an astonishing musical landscape, in which the accordion
gives way to improvised trombone, then returning to swing, oboe and
trumpet resounding, and then the drums take charge and soothe the tempo...Neither
the jazz nor the trad sound dominate. "To start with, three years ago,
each person attempted to define their individual stance, remembers Ronan
Robert. The brass section in a chorus would go off in a tangent in their
improvisation. Now, we have common meeting points, and we stay more
within the confines of the written music."
Dominique Le Voadec's compositions and arrangements leave enough space
for each instrument to get into their stride. This is a musical equilibium
that was not easy to find for a group with no producer, and who got
together only ten times a year. For the rest of the year the accordion
player accompanies the singer Morwenna and performs at Fest-Noz. As
he himself says, Ronan Robert is partial to variety...
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