"I liked... that Belgian who's dead now... the sax player Bobby Jaspar. I really liked European jazz : Rene' Thomas, and also a oihraphone player, Sadi." (Georges Perec, "I remember jazz", Jazz Magazine, Feb. 1979). Coming out of the war and welcoming the GI's, the country went American and chose to be modern. As Michel Houellebecq, that choice sociologist, also noted, America's pragmatism suited the Belgian temperament quite well. In 1958 Brussels and its Atomium welcomed the Universal Exhibition, which consecrated Belgium as a window on the world. A generation of exceptional young jazzmen marked by bebop would assert itself on the intemational stage. Its emblematic figures, players of the saxophone, flute, guitar, harmonica or Vibraphone, were Bobby Jaspar, René Thomas, Jacques Pelzer, Jack Sels, Toots Thielemans and Fats Sadi. Their instrumental virtuosity and compositional talents made them household names in Belgium, and then on to Paris and as far as the USA. This anthology gives you the chance to discover their first recordings made in Brussels, Cologne, Paris, Rome and NYC in the course of the Fifties.
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"The country isn't big, but it's a mirror with a thousand facets offering a short-cut like a digest of multiple universes... Everything and its opposite look each other in the eye there." (Stephan Zweig, in Emile Verhaeren, 1910.) This little country (its birth dates from 1830), so fragile, has always had a great soul, moved simultaneously by delusions of grandeur and the spectre of its disappearance. Rich through its fruitful yet so often difficult confrontation of Roman and Germanic cultures, Belgium has always succeeded in renewing its imagination to remain a land of creativity and paradox. From the festive scenes in Breughel to the Surrealist fantasies of Magritte and the grimacing masks of Ensor, from Tintin's adventures to those of Bob Morane, from the fantastic tales of Jean Ray to the detective novels of Simenon, the country has always offered a kaleidoscope of colours and emotions. Jazz came there from the United States to offer its horizons, distant and near, exotic and familiar...
Philippe Comoy (from the booklet)
Various Artists
L'Âge d'or du Jazz Belge
(1949-1962)
Tracks
Cd. 1
The Bob Shots
1 Boppin' at the Doge (Coppieters) 2:43
Bobby Jaspar
2 Jeeper's Creepers (Warren) 3:28
3 La Fin d'un roman d'amour (Redding) 3:44
4 Scruttin' with Some Barbecue (Armstrong) 3:33
5 Bernie's Tune (La Baronne) (Miller) 3:51
6 Tout bleu, tout bleu (Black Horse) (Gilbert, Stolz) 3:37
7 Stike Up the Band (Gershwin, Gershwin) 3:14
8 Jimmy's Dream (Raney) 3:45
9 Tenor Business (Jaspar) 2:39
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René Thomas
10 Burt's Pad (Renaud) 5:06
11 Chicago (Fisher) 2:50
12 Autobuzz (Thomas) 2:58
13 (Back Home Again in) Indiana (Hanley, McDonald) 2:02
14 Get Out of Town (Porter) 3:29
15 'Tis Autumn (Nemo) 4:26
16 Thomasia (Thomas, Renaud) 4:24
Thomas-Jaspar
18 I Remember Sonny (Thomas) 8:33
19 Theme for Freddie (Thomas) 4:15
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Cd. 2
Jacques Pelzer
1 There Will Never be Another You (Warren) 4:01
2 Whose Blues (Niehaus) 2:56
3 Shank's Blues (Rogers) 4:15
4 Wailing Wall (Lamphere) 5:47
5 Salute the Band Box (Gryce) 5:37
6 Saul (Sandy) 3:19
7 These Foolish Things/You and The Night and The Music (Marvell, Strachay, Link) 3:56
8 Confirmation (Parker) 7:20
9 Don't Smile (Pelzer, Quersin) 2:47
Jack Sels
10 Rain on the Grand'Place (Sels) 2:33
Jack Sels & Lucky Thompson
11 Ginger (Sels) 3:55
12 Minor Works (Sels) 3:32
Jack Sels
13 Thunderstorm (Blues 1000) (Orsow, Husting) 4:53
14 On Stage (Sels) 4:06
15 Black Velvet (Huffnaggle) 3:06
16 African Dance (Bellson) 2:09
17 Blues for a Blonde (Sels) 3:24
18 Bay's Way (A Wise Guy) (Huffnaggle) 8:38
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Cd. 3
Toots Thielemans
1 Red Devil Boogie (Thielemans) 2:59
2 That's a Planty (Pollack) 2:56
3 Harmonica Rag (Thielemans) 2:37
4 Harmonica Shuffle (Thielemans) 2:30
5 At the Darktown Strutter's Ball (Brooks) 2:30
6 Toots Blues (Thielemans) 2:56
7 Happy Go Lazy (Thielemans) 2:39
8 On the Alamo (Kahn, Jones) 2:21
9 Sophisticated Lady (Mills, Parish, Ellington) 3:01
10 I Let a Song Go Out of my Heart (Mills, Nemo, Redmond, Ellington) 2:25
11 Stars Fell on Alabama (Parish, Perkins) 3:14
12 Skylark (Mercer, Carmichael) 2:04
13 Sonny Boy (Jolson, DeSilva, Brown, Henderson) 4:27
14 Cocktails for Two (Johnston, Coslow) 2:15
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Fats Sadi
15 Sadisme (Boland) 2:29
16 Sweet Feeling (Michelot) 3:33
17 Thanks a Million (Whitton) 3:17
18 Big Balcony (Jaspar) 3:32
19 Karin (Boitel) 3:38
20 Laguna Leap (Laguna) 3:05
21 Ad Libitum (Boland) 3:20
22 Ridin'High (Porter, arr. Vander) 3:21
Les Blue Stars
23 Jumping at the Woodside (Basie) 2:58
Fats Sadi
24 Dear Old Lady (Sadi) 5:13
25 Hegor (Sadi) 4:45
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Featuring Jacques Pelzer, Bobby Jaspar, Francy Boland, Fats Sadi, René Thomas, Henri Renaud, Jimmy Gourley, Amadeo Tommasi, Maurizio Majorana, Franco Mondini, Herman Sandy, Jean Fanis, Paul Dubois, Jean-Jacques Sels, Benoit Quersin, Joel Vandroogenbroeck, Jean Warland, Lucky Thompson, Lou Bennett, Philip Catherine, Goliath, Toots Thielemans, Ray Bryant, Wendell Marshall, Roger Guérin, Maurice Vander, Blossom Dearie...
Recorded in various locations ; between May 13, 1949 & 1961
See the complete artwork