Scullers Living Room Live Presents Jacques Schwarz-Bart

By the time tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart recorded Soné Ka-La in 2005 (“simply infectious”
— JazzTimes), he had amassed credits with D’Angelo’s Voodoo touring band, Roy Hargrove’s Crisol and
RH Factor, Erykah Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello and other greats. In the spirit of those searingly original
artists, the French-Jewish-Guadeloupean Schwarz-Bart set out with Soné Ka-La “to pioneer a sophisticated modern jazz language cross-pollinated with Afro-Caribbean rhythms and melodies inspired
by the Gwoka traditions from my native island of Guadeloupe.”
Now, after some 15 years of musical travels — during which Schwarz-Bart explored post-bop on The Art
of Dreaming, voodoo music on Jazz Racine Haïti, Jewish liturgical music on Hazzan, and contemporary European jazz on Shijin — it was time for him to find his way back to the initial Soné Ka-La concept with a renewed approach. The result is Soné Ka-La 2 — Odyssey. Its subtitle posits Schwarz-Bart as Ulysses,
who “left his island to explore different musical worlds and realities. Fifteen years later, he is back to hisIthaca, his musical landscape of Guadeloupe, with a new vision.” Equally important, Schwarz-Bart adds
Odyssey refers to the Middle Passage, and serves as a tribute to those souls “who found the strength to
create art and music that have reshaped and elevated the modern world.”
Current.ly an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, Schwarz-Bart was transformed by the live
experience of Gwoka music in Guadeloupe at age four. (The family later relocated to Switzerland.) “At the
time,” he recalls, “I already lived more among sounds than human beings. One night, my parents took me to a Gwoka ceremony in a yard behind a row of wooden sheds. Barely lit by a few petrol lamps, the master musicians created an ocean of sounds that seemed to rise all the way to the stars. I was
overwhelmed by the desire to become a maker of sounds too. This moment granted me the gift of undying
love for music, and still carries me every day of my life.”
A major difference between Soné Ka-La and Soné Ka-La 2 — Odyssey, Schwarz-Bart explains, is how
on the latter “the voice and sax carry all the melodies together as one, might they be tumultuous, angular, mysterious or serene.” Vocalist Malika Tirolien, from Montreal by way of Guadeloupe, blends beautifully with Schwarz-Bart’s tenor and lends a great breadth of expression to the music as a whole. Schwarz-Bart
also sought to include “more contemporary sounds throughout, from the keyboards, the frequent presence
of electric bass, and generous use of effect pedals on the saxophone.” Pianist/keyboardist Grégory
Privat (of Martinique) and bassist Reggie Washington create a broad sonic canvas to that effect, while the Gwoka drum masters Arnaud Dolmen and Sonny Troupé infuse Schwarz-Bart’s compositions with the vernacular of the Gwoka tradition. With a twist: Troupé plays traditional Gwoka percussion while
Dolmen plays the drum set, “transferring the traditional language to a modern instrument,” says Schwarz-Bart. (The drum roles are reversed on “Ami Bongo.”)
On Soné Ka-La 2 — Odyssey we hear the distinct dance rhythms of Gwoka in the DNA of Schwarz-Bart’s songs. “In certain cases the rhythms are played in their traditional version,” he notes.
“‘Mendé’ is a Mendé, ‘New Padjanbel’ is a Padjanbel, ‘RonJack’ [co-composed by Ron Cha] is a Takuta.
But I altered the Kaladja rhythm in ‘Pa Gadé’ to create a backbeat; I turned a 4/4 Woulé into a 7/4 in ‘Zero Gravity,’ and I mixed Gwoka and Afrobeat in ‘Ami Bongo.’ So the tradition informs my aesthetic but never limits it. Gwoka also informs my melodies through the use of traditional scales, modes and syncopation throughout the album.”
It is Schwarz-Bart’s hope that his music can serve as “a bridge between cultures and ethnicities.” He spent his early youth near the rainforest and the seashore, becoming a fearless spear-fisher and diver. When he took up saxophone, quite late at 24, he quickly rose to become an in-demand sideman and a bandleader of distinction. But more than stun listeners with technical achievement, he drew deeply from a complex personal history to create music that resounds with an uncommon beauty and passion. “My
paternal ancestors left Germany for Poland at the end of the 19th century,” he says, “and my paternal
grandparents moved to France in the 1920s to escape the rise of antisemitism in eastern Europe, just in time to be decimated during the holocaust. My father survived and saved several of his siblings from being
sent to Auschwitz. He met my Guadeloupean mother in Paris in 1957, and the rest is history. I am
multiracial and multicultural, and I am hoping to help each individual find himself in all other humans. I feel
that we are evolving toward a more inclusive social contract, and music will have to play a role every step
of the way.”