thanks again to our correspondent amy gamlen for this!:
David Prez and Roman have one of my favourite jazz quartets in Paris. This great tenor sax and guitar team play a repertoire of their original compositions which, like their playing is highly skilled, musical, varied, imaginative and REAL. Their team is completed by superb Karl Jannuska on drums and Yoni Zelnik solid solid solid on bass - I love it! All musicians show a real depth of absorbancy here in their musical culture without any rechurning or listing of ingredients - you know what I mean. The playing and writing is just beautiful. Deeply felt simplicity and depth of sound and texture aside unpretentious complexity and exuberant virtuosity. They have recently completed a third recording project together.
I'm listening right now to their new record on A.P.O records called "II" - as in "two" - which is a lovely title and fitting as it's their second record together. I am really enjoying all the music and playing - so did a friend of mine just earlier who was dancing in her seat as she finished her pasta, saying that she likes the trumpet - I think she means the saxophone - she's only 3 but she knows good music when she hears it!
The David Prez (yes, that's his real name) and Romain Pilon Group. "II". Enjoy!
1) So how and when did you guys meet and what drew you to each other's music?
Romain : We met in New york in 2004, I was living there at the time, one day I went to play a session at a friend's place and David was there with his tenor. He was spending few months in the city. We realized only later that we were from the same area in France... Then we both move to paris and started playing regularly with Karl and Yoni , bringing original music or standards, and the group was born.
2) What are your main musical influences?
David : Coltrane, Rollins, Monk, Satie, Fauré, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder…
Romain : same as david ,and all the musicians I met at Berklee or in NY : Walter Smith III, Warren Wolf, Lage Lund ,Albert Sanz ,Rob Stillman,David Doruzka ...
3) What is your compositional method?
David : It depends, most of the time I start earing and sing a melody, (often it happens at the end of an inspiring day!). Then I develop it.. I try to find the right harmonies on it and to build a form.. technically I make my developement at the piano, or using my saxophones… sometimes if my ideas are really clear I write directly on paper.
Romain : I usually think about a person , place or a special moment, and let it go... I don't write my ideas on paper anymore , I like to think that if I don't remember a melody it's because it's probably not that good and not worth develloping it. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes just few hours.
4) Do you ever write music together or have creative input into each others compositions ?
Romain : most of the time when I sing the melody of my tunes I think about David 's sound . It's also a lot easier to write when you have the sound of the band in mind.
David : We are listening to the same musicians and we love and share the same music and influences. So, I think that (even if we both write tunes separetly) we are in the same way of writing and have the same sound I mind with our group.
5) In a few sentences - what is your musical journey so far and what direction would you like to take?
David : Practicing saxophones/piano, I do a lot of ear training and transcriptions also… I listen to a lot of different kind of music to get inspiration ! I’m writing new tunes for the group at this time…
Romain : I would like to continue writing for the group of course, I might use the acoustic guitar cause I've been listening to a lot of folk music recently, also record some standards in a trio setting (bass/drums/guitar)
6) What's your top musical moment so far?
Romain : Probably opening for Pat Metheny while studying at Berklee
David : My fisrt recording session as a leader, it was in 2004 at Skyline Studio (New Jersey-USA) with Bill Stewart (drums), Johannes Weidenmueller (bass) and Franck Amsallem (piano). We spent 2 days in the studio playing my compositions and it was just amazing and unbelievable to play with this 3 masters !
7) Have you ever been to the UK ? Is there any UK music that you like?
David : I played one time in London (2003 I think) at a place called « The Cargo » with Colorblind which was a french electro/jazz group. I went also to england and scotland several times for holidays..
Romain : no, I've never been to the uk unfortunetly.
8) What's at the top of your CD pile at the moment?
David : Kurt Rosenwinkel «The Remedy», Donny Mc Caslin trio «recommended tools», Nocturnes by Gabriel Fauré and «Wincing the night away» by The Shins.
Romain : John Shannon : American Mystic.
9) Equipment???
Romain : Ibanez GB20 ,few effects I love: Q-Tron by Electro harmonix,overdrive pedal by Maxon .also a small amp AER that I can carry on my scooter easily...!
David : Tenor Selmer Mark VI (1957), Mouthpiece Vandoren V16 T9 and V16 reeds size 3 or 3,5. I may use some effects pedal : delays, distortion, flanger, auto-wah by line 6 and a Whammy digitech pedal.
9) Where can people get hold of your CD or hear your music?
You can download our albums on the Itunes store.
We have also CD for sale, you can contact us by mail for details :
or
