FLYING OVER NEW YORK

Retrouvailles in Central Park

My 2021 composition, recorded on the album ‘Second Trip’ with Bojan Z and Simon Goubert. I adapted it to 7/4 time for the occasion. I first met the pianist Jeremy Manasia in New York in 1992. During the summer of 1993, he came to visit me in Paris and we spent two weeks together playing and taking part in Parisian jam sessions. In April 2026, 33 years later, we met up again in New York.

Diggin Dolphy

I remember the first time I heard the sound of multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy’s alto saxophone. I was sitting in front of the television with my father in Burnley around 1984, watching a BBC jazz special. John Coltrane played ‘Impressions’, followed by Dolphy’s solo. It left a lasting impression on me. At first, I was unsettled by his atonal improvisations, but as the years went by, I began to appreciate them… the boldness, the energy, a sound of great originality; today, Eric Dolphy is one of my favourite musicians. Eric Dolphy recorded several albums at that legendary studio in New Jersey, notably 1964’s ‘Out to Lunch’. I’m particularly struck by George Russell’s 1961 album ‘Ezz-Thetics’, featuring Dolphy and double bassist Steve Swallow.

I came up with the melody through singing, letting myself improvise freely in the spirit of Dolphy. The framework for the piano improvisation is a blues in Db. The double bass solo unfolds without any harmonic constraints. To dig = to love.

Rising Damp

‘Rising Damp’ has already appeared on my quintet album Spacecraft. It is a tribute to the great bassist and double bassist Steve Swallow. During a Carla Bley Big Band concert in Paris in 2003, I was able to give Steve a copy of my first album, *French Cricket*. A month later, he congratulated me with some very warm and encouraging feedback. This track is inspired by his musical world and, in particular, his composition ‘Falling Grace’. I composed a new melody over the existing harmonic framework.

Did He Eckers Like

An expression from the north of England, meaning: ‘Of course not’. I set myself the challenge of composing a piece in the key of B flat major, at a brisk tempo. I asked the drummer Charles Goold to improvise an intro and set the tempo. Then, after playing the theme, the improvisations unfold in an AABA form corresponding to the chords of ‘Anatole’ (George Gershwin’s ‘I Got Rhythm’).

My Piano Joy

It was in 1990, after playing a series of concerts with a pop singer in Paris, that I was able to treat myself to my first upright piano. That piano went through five house moves, and I composed around a hundred pieces on it. In early 2026, I had the opportunity to buy a new, higher-quality piano. It was whilst playing around on this instrument that I composed ‘My Piano Joy’. A simple melody carried by the beauty of the piano’s sound.

Million Dollar Ears

In 2011, I was commissioned to write a piece for my large orchestra, Pee Bee. I decided to write a suite dedicated to the double bassist Charles Mingus. For the first, slow movement, I wrote lyrics recounting Mingus’s life. A trio version of *Mingus’ House* was recorded with Bojan Z and Simon Goubert in 2021.

In 2004, I took part in a series of concerts and the recording of the American singer Sheila Jordan’s ‘Believe in Jazz’, and again in further concerts in 2017.
These experiences brought me closer to Charles Mingus and Charlie Parker, who were close friends of Sheila’s. Charlie Parker said of Sheila, ‘Ah, you’re the one with the ears worth a million dollars ’
Sheila Jordan recorded her first album at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in 1962 with Steve Swallow on double bass. I had intended to ask Sheila to take part in my recording, but sadly she passed away in August 2025 at the age of 96.

For ‘Flying over New York’, I decided to transform this ballad into a samba to celebrate Sheila Jordan’s magnificent life, and to thank her for everything she brought to the world of jazz.

Tommy and George

They are the pianist Tommy Flanagan and the double bassist George Mraz. Whilst studying in Wales in 1986, a Welsh friend gave me a cassette of the recording *Eclypso*. I was deeply moved by George Mraz’s playing. In 1989, I saw George in concert for the first time in Paris with saxophonist Johnny Griffin and drummer Kenny Washington. In 1992, during my last visit to New York, I went to see Tommy Flanagan’s trio with George Mraz and Lewis Nash at the Sweet Basil club in Greenwich Village. Tommy Flanagan’s album ‘Jazz Poet’ was recorded in that very same studio by Rudy Van Gelder in 1989, with Kenny Washington on drums. Together with pianist Jeremy Manasia and drummer Charles Goold, I sought to pay tribute to their musical world and to recapture the unique rapport that existed between these two musicians who had made such a profound impression on me.