Jacques Schwarz-Bart
Jacques Schwarz-Bart (born December 22, 1962 in Les Abymes) is a New York based jazz saxophonist. His mother is the Guadeloupean novelist Simone Schwarz-Bart, author of The Bridge of Beyond. His father was French Jewish author Andre Schwarz-Bart. The two published a joint novel, Un plat de porc aux bananes vertes, in 1967. The family traveled widely, living in Senegal, Switzerland, and Goyave, Guadeloupe. Jacques Schwarz-Bart is dubbed "Brother Jacques" and his music has incorporated rhythm and blues as well as hip hop influences.
At age six, while living in Switzerland, he discovers Jazz music through his best friend’s dad record collection. Fascinated, he self teaches the guitar by playing along with records. By age eleven, he sat in with the players of the local Lausanne scene, but soon after, his family relocated in Guadeloupe. There, without a jazz scene, he concentrated on his studies, most notably at the prestigious School of Government called Sciences Po, and eventually landed a job as a Senator’s assistant in Paris. At twenty-four he appeared poised for a more conventional success, until by chance he tried a friend's tenor saxophone. He practiced between his long hours at the Senate, and three years later, he abandoned his nascent career to attend Berklee School of Music.
After a grueling practice schedule that spanned four years, he graduated from Berklee, and developed a reputation by playing with acknowledged leaders of the Boston jazz scene, such Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Giovanni Hidalgo, before leaving for New York City. One week upon arriving there, goes to hear Chucho Valdes, Roy Hargrove and Randy Brecker perform at Bradlee’s Jazz Club. In a moment of boldness, he pulls out his horn, jumps on stage and joins in. One month later, he gets a call from Roy Hargrove to replace David Sanchez in his Latin Jazz band, Crisol. By early 2000, he earns his nickname, "Brother Jacques," from musician D'Angelo, in praise of Schwarz-Bart's musicianship. In addition to Hargrove and D'Angelo, Schwarz-Bart has done session work and performed live with Erykah Badu, Eric Benet, Meshell N’degeocello, James Hurt, Danilo Perez, Soulive, Ari Hoenig and David Gilmore, among others. His tune “Forget Regret” was the single on Roy Hargrove’s 2003 album Hard Groove.
Jacques Schwarz-Bart Quartet
Now Jacques is the leader of a prestigious quartet featuring the French pianist Baptiste Trotignon, one of the most interesting musician of his country; Reggie Washington, whose first instrument was the classic cello and performed with the New York Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado or James Levine. Soon he switched to the upright bass and performed with Branford Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Ravi Coltrane, Lester Bowie; and the great percussionist Leon Parker, a minimalist who always shows that less is more and who can reduce the drums to a snare and bass drums and one cymbal. He has played with Dewey Redman, David Sanchez or Jacky Terrasson. A great quartet formed by four stars.
The success of Abyss
In the meanwhile his album Abyss, which was released two years ago in Europe and last year in North America, is still very much alive. It was in the "Top 10" played album on the CMJ radio chart, and is still on heavy rotation in many radio stations accross America. It is generating most of the concerts at the moment of Jaques Schwarz-Bart.
The music was recorded with just Gwoka percussions and no drum set. But for the last year, I started playing it with regular drums. Two men have stepped in and taken this music to the stratosphere: Ari Hoenig, and Leon Parker. The effect on the music has been the following: on one hand it is a group sound closer to the classic jazz quartet, on the other hand, it is a wider dynamic range, that has allowed improvisations to take off unabated as far as they needed to go.
New CD "Rise Above"
