Jef Gilson – Malagasy At Newport-Paris LP

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“In May 1972, the wave of anger and the thirst for freedom that had swept the world in 1968 arrived in Madagascar. The Malagasy youth took the opportunity to exile in search of a brighter future. Several of them, all jazz musicians and often polyintrumentalists, came to Paris with their Afro hair and bellbottoms. Their names wereSylvin Marc, his cousinAnge ‘Zizi’ Japhet,Del Rabenja,Grard RakotoarivonyandFrank Raholison. By chance, they crossed paths with pianist and bandleaderJef Gilson, who they had already met as kids during a series of concert and workshops in Tananarive four years earlier. Gilson was far from an unknown on the French jazz scene. He had played withBoris VianandAndr Hodeirat the end of the forties, he was one of the first French composers to move away from the New-Orleans style to try his hand at bebop, had launched numerous young stars (Ponty,Texier,Portal…), was a polemical critic for Jazz Hot, had opened forColtraneat Antibes/Juan Les Pins, and was part of theDouble Six… But it was tough to make a living playing personal compositions and Jef, who didn’t have enough money to return to the island and continue mining the seam of Malagasy jazz, saw an opportunity to relaunchMalagasy. He had his recording studio in the Les Halles area, at the Foyer Montorgueil, where he was teaching jazz to a choir. He set to work with the new Malagasy group, working on a repertoire and reviving some of his compositions from the ’50s/’60s and also included more recent tunes. The groupMalagasy 73gigged a lot. One of their concerts was recorded on the 14 March in a club, ‘Le Newport’, in rue Grgoire de Tours, Saint Germain des Prs, not far from the ‘Kiosque d’Orphe’ where Gilson worked at the beginning of the ’60s when he brought bebop and avant-garde jazz to the attention of a generation of musicians with his records imported from USA. This meeting between two generations and two cultures created a new mix between jazz, traditional music and electric funk. Jef Gilson had reinvented himself yet again, and it wouldn’t be the last time.” —Jrme “Kalcha” SimonneauFirst ever standalone reissue, remastered. Licensed from Palm/Genevive Quievreux.