Richard Galliano - Paris Concert ( Theatre du Châtelet )

"The story of a painter, a musician, a composer, an artist; music has never been as close to a pictorial work of art as the music of Richard Galliano. The maestro now stands in front of the white canvas, at the Foyer du Theatre du Châtelet..."

Theatre du Châtelet. The temple of Parisian music, just a short walk from the bakns of the Seine. There, in front of his audience, Richard Galliano makes his entrance with only the accordion. Double the responsibility yet double the joy to play in front of his own people.

A festive maze of sounds, that touches the form : jazz, tango French song...waills of blues emerge from the folds of his accordion. Travelling with his compositions, the ones that brought him to perform on stage throughout the world, without forgetting those of Astor Piazzolla, who he has always loved and celebrated in his own way. Yes, because Galliano knows how to shape the material to himself : the teaching of the composer from Mar de La Plata are well visible, but as a starting point, not as a landing place.

Moving, never taking for granted the solutions, always at the service of the melody and the rhythm - principle elements of dance - very attentive to the depth and the form; because, like few artists, Galliano joins technical skill and syntactical knowledge of the music from the 1900s with an uncommon emotionality.

Chat Pitre opens the album, one of the most beautiful pieces written by this accordion player from Cannes, and is followed by Gnossienne 1 and Gnossienne 2 by Erik Satie.

But there is a lot of Italy in his latest "Paris Concert", and not only for the italian label, Cam Jazz, that has realeased this work ( for which Galliano had already recorded the beautiful "L'Hymne à l' Amour", inviting vibraphonist Gary Burton ), but also for his tribute to a very popular Italian song, Caruso, which brought worlwide fame to Lucio Dalla.

And then "Round Midnight" by Thelonius Monk, an artist that Galliano is particularly attached and to whom he has rendered homage many times during his career: a version thought out in absolute respect for the Monkian concept.

If, as Virginia Woolfs writes, in solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, to our memories and the details around us, then this solo album gifts us with a Galliano in his most profound essence, as artist and as a man".