Henri Texier’s STRADA QUINTET

Improvised Music Company
in partnership with
The Alliance Francais & Irish Film Institute
present

Henri Texier’s STRADA QUINTET

• Gueorgui Kornazov – trombone
• Sebastien Texier – saxophone
• Manu Codija – guitar
• Christophe Marguet – drums
• Henri Texier - bass

“Strada Sextet is determinedly contemporary, with harmonic and rhythmic reference points that stretch from The Balkans to The Middle East, but there are many nods to jazz’s rich history.” – The Guardian

"Just like his bass, Henri Texier is a pillar, a landmark in the middle of European jazz' - France Today

9.30PM, Monday 28th November
Screen 1, IFI, Eustace St, Dublin 2
Adm €20 (inc booking fee) available from:

• IFI box office tel 01 679 3477
• Improvised Music Company tel 01 670 3885

One of the great patriarchs of French jazz, Henri Texier returns to Ireland for a unique performance with his Strada Quintet, as part of The Martell Cognac French Film Festival. It will be introduced by one of his most avid admirers, filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, for whom Texier provided the score for Holy Lola, which receives its Irish premiere at the festival.*

Tavernier, whose portrayal of the jazz life in Round Midnight (1986) is a high watermark, is one of several European film directors to find kinship in the expressive music of this gifted composer and virtuoso bassist. Fired by the spirit of iconic musicians like Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon and Don Cherry, all of whom he performed with in the halcyon days of the Parisian post war jazz scene, the unerring pulse of his plangent bass has been reverberating through European jazz for over four decades, ringing the changes, from Phil Woods in the 70s, to Louis Sclavis in the 90s.

As a bassist, he bears comparison with legendary figures of the jazz pantheon like Charles Mingus and Jimmy Blanton. That connection back to the music's Afro- American roots is ever present, and provides an intriguing counterpoint to his nomadic world view, which happily intertwines the sounds of West Africa and the Maghreb with boisterous grooves that evoke New Orleans. Like Paris, the city that has been his home and inspiration, Texier is in perpetual cultural flux, and it finds potent, life affirming expression in The Strada Quintet.

*Holy Lola Screening at 6.30 - for further information visit www.irishfilm.ie