Quintet violin, accordion guitar, bass, drums, Josef Josef, whose first album is in the bins (Buda Music), combines traditional Yiddish, Gypsy, and original compositions, with electric notes. The new formation of Eric Slabiak, after Black eyes, takes off the public every Monday until December 27 at the Théâtre Michel, in Paris.
Frank Anastaio (guitar / vocals), Dario Ivkovic (accordion), Nicolas Grupp (drums), Jérôme Arrighi or Noé Russeil (bass) installed, the entry on stage of Eric Slabiak raises the audience, happy to find the leader of the Black eyes, at the head of his new group. And it’s gone for an hour and a half with a whirlwind of notes and irresistible rhythms: impossible not to move in your seat. The legs, shoulders, head are racing, the banana takes you without ever leaving the lips. That happiness.
If it is not the dance that itches you, it is the nostalgia or the melancholy of the chords that hug you. Eric Slabiak does not fail to give the meaning of his songs in Yiddish, Romanian or Hungarian, carried by an innate sense of communication with the public and the joy of sharing. The current passes, the room merges, the floor vibrates, and the music envelops.
We let ourselves be carried away by the agreement but also the visible complicity between the performers, happy to share on stage, in symbiosis with the public. The dialogue is palpable between the musicians, but also between these arias from the depths of the ages and a more contemporary orchestration. The violin and accordion combine with the electric guitar, sometimes with clarinet accents, and with jazzy bass and drums, to the rhythm and tones of klezmer music.
With Josef Josef, Eric Slabiak gives a more contemporary color to Black eyes, but does not distort the sources for all that. No “popularization” in such an approach, but a natural update on magical chords that carry until the last reminders and at the end of the night.
Josef josef
December 6, 13, 20 and 27 at 8:30 p.m.
Michel Theater
38 Rue des Mathurins, 75008 Paris
Phone: 01 42 65 35 02