Laurent De Wilde & Ray Lema  / New Monk Trio

Laurent de Wilde & Ray Lema Duo "Riddles"

One will celebrate his seventieth birthday this year and continues on an incredibly rich career path. Curious of everything, he has traveled around the globe and opened up his Congolese culture very early on to the many winds of world music, creating every time productive encounters.  The other, who is fifteen years younger, has not wasted his time either: after establishing himself as one of the most important pianists of jazz, he has multiplied side roads since 2000, electronica, slam, reggae, theater, documentary filmmaking, twisting his instrument every time with contagious energy and success.

When they decided to imagine a two-piano project, they knew they share one belief: to play as few notes as possible, and only the right ones. Few pianists have taken the risk to record two at a time, and even fewer have decided to composer the music: ten pieces in which they express their joy of playing together, to dance incessantly without ever steamrolling each other, to weave rhythms and melodies of a thousand unexpected colors.  RIDDLES is a journey, and was conceived as such. It has the dream of traveling the world and its musics, always with the same candid fidelity to its rhythms and its chants, telling at any time the story of the beautiful friendship of two great musicians.

New Monk Trio

A jubilatoire tribute from a student to his master

The year 2017 celebrated the 100th birthday of genius pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, whose music has never ceased to inspire every new generation of musicians. An opportunity for Laurent de Wilde, a great admirer and specialist of the master*, to propose a personal and by all accounts successful reinterpretation of his repertoire. The New Monk Trio , for whom Laurent chose to join forces with a symbiotic rhythm - the indispensable double bassist Jerome Regard and groovy drummer Donald Kontomanou - literally resuscitates Monk ' s music. The festival invites you to a beautiful journey of melodies in the heart of an architectural jewel of the early 20th century: one of the most delightful concerts of the year.

* Monk L. de Wilde (Folio)