We discovered it with Stress Killer, his fantastic third album, a magical, addictive and danceable fusion of jazz, house and groove, released last year on Heavenly Sweetness. Then, we went to see at New Morning, at the end of January, how Léon Phal’s quintet was doing on stage. We took a slap in the face: live, it was even more fluid, more powerful, more sensual.
While the quintet (Léon Phal on saxophone, Zacharie Ksyk on trumpet, Gauthier Toux on keyboards, Rémi Bouyssière on double bass and Arthur Alard on drums) is on tour in the coming weeks throughout France, we wanted to know more about the man and the musician behind this audacious project which refuses to choose between genres and brings them into dialogue in such a fruitful way.
A punk and free-jazz childhood
First surprise: Léon Phal, 32, is a child of punk. His father was a singer and musician in a punk-rock group from Champagne-Ardennes, Nihil, which toured a lot and opened for Noir Désir during its heyday. Little Léon followed Nihil on tour from the age of 5, construction helmet on his ears.
“With a punk father, we were very anti-pop at home.”, remembers Léon Phal. “As a child, I felt very different from others, and I loved it. But I missed out on a lot of things because of that, like Michael Jackson who I only discovered when he died, and I had to compensate afterwards. The good thing is that I was lulled by very typical things, I wasn’t influenced by the standard, sanitized pieces. Furthermore, my mother listened to a lot of free jazz, the albums of Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry and Eric Dolphy, which I discovered thanks to her.” From this mix of punk and free jazz, has he retained the non-conformism? “Above all, I retained the energy”he tells us.
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His older brother, four years older, played the drums and was into classic jazz, from Miles Davis to Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. The legendary album Colossus Saxophone of the latter has been his bedside record since childhood. But the trigger that made him choose the saxophone as an instrument of study around the age of 9 rather than the piano, which he had been practicing as a dilettante since the age of 5, came from John Coltrane. “In my father’s car I heard Giant Steps and I gained a torrent of energy. Immediately I said: that’s what I want to do, it’s the sax!”.
Sound frontier dynamiter
Trained in contemporary music and jazz, Léon Phal knows no sound boundaries. The records that have marked his musical journey are delightfully eclectic, starting from the post-hardcore rock of Fugazi (Instrument Soundtrack), to the avant-garde jazz of Eric Dolphy (Out to Lunch), through the reggae of the Gladiators (The Time Is Now), the funk-rock of Primus (Anti-pop), the groovy samba of Jorge Ben (Força Bruta) and the essential folk rock of The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel. Then came the afro-beat of Fela Kuti and the hip-hop of Cypress Hill and The Pharcyde. Having never put labels on the music he listened to as a child, mixing jazz with other styles, such as electronica, came quite naturally to him.
A hybridization of genres that he practices more than ever on his latest album Stress Killer. As on the song at once “intellectual and dancing” Fuck Yeah, its sirens and techno keyboard crossed with the brass melody, which would undoubtedly have a little effect under the disco ball. Or Idylla, his favorite track, a nod to the too-soon-departed American hip-hop producer J Dilla. “It’s the track on the album that most mixes different aesthetics. There is the bebop side in Gauthier’s fantastic keyboard solo. There is the afro-futuristic touch at the KOG microphone [chanteur et rappeur d’origine ghanéenne, basé à Londres], and the tempo is danceable, but slow, between hip-hop and house music. I am very happy to have brought together on the same piece these styles which have influenced me a lot.”
Which does not prevent him from daring to take back the monument Naima by John Coltrane in a version that is both respectful and subtly reinvented, which gives the thrill and does not differ from the rest of the album as the group has made it its own. “I wanted a repeat. I would have liked to cover David Bowie or Catherine Ringer, but I lacked time to do something truly original. I thought it would be better to cover a song that I had listened to a lot, and the answer was Naima of Coltrane, which is imbued deep within me. In the end, I am very proud of this cover with our sonic identity, and happy to have both a nod to J Dilla and Coltrane on the same album. I think it represents my journey well.”
“On stage, we have gone beyond the stage of modesty”
So jazz, a dusty music from the past? “Jazz can’t be old, it’s music that’s far too alive.”, replies Léon Phal. Like hip-hop, capable of digesting and recycling all musical styles, jazz can integrate and fuse all genres. “The very essence of jazz is a fusion of styles. It is intrinsic to its existence, and historically it is not a unique and isolated current: it has plenty of parents. Since its appearance, jazz has only soaked up, transcribed and digested the aesthetics of contemporary popular music. Each major movement in jazz is inspired by its era, such as when Charlie Parker incorporated Latin music into his bebop during the rise of Latin music in the 1950s.
At New Morning, where we saw Léon Phal’s quintet on January 25 in an enthusiastic and packed room, the five musicians struck a perfect chord. The pieces were played in unison, in a euphoric organic osmosis. The group seemed to simply celebrate life. “The New Morning is a good memory. Today, we are no longer afraid of being happy on stage, we dare to show it, we have gone beyond the stage of modesty”, analyzes Léon Phal. “VSNot every day is rosy, but this group, which has existed in its current form since 2019, has had the opportunity to give a lot of concerts already despite the pandemic, and that has strengthened the bonds. We all love each other very much. And we let the energies circulate between us and with the public. Musically, the group has developed and inevitably something has developed on a human level too. To become a better musician, you have to become a better human, you can’t do otherwise.”
If the quintet evolves under his name, it is because he is the main composer. No scores however, but models composed either on instruments or on his computer, with which he suggests chords, harmonies, an aesthetic, and takes care not to overload too much to leave space for others. Then the pieces are then worked on by five people. “To avoid making too many gaps between the compositions, I chose to ensure that there was a single musical leader. But everyone has their say and finds their place.”.
“I position myself as a free musician”
Recently, the group’s audience has grown. The musicians notice this on each date, where they like to stay chatting with the spectators after the concert. “I never expected to be able to reach such a wide audience.” observes Léon Phal. “There’s everything from teenagers to people my parents’ age. It’s the best you could ask for. What matters to me is that people come in large numbers, that they feel emotions and are happy.”
With his increasingly accomplished aesthetic hybridizations, which breathe new life into jazz, Léon Phal is not seeking at all costs to do something new, he assures. “I don’t pretend to innovate. I just try to do the best I can. I do not position myself as an innovator, but as a free musician. Like my idol David Bowie, who was free from everything, who was free with his eyes, free with his body, free with his voice, and who did many other things besides music: theater, painting…” .
His quest has only just begun, our broad-minded researcher intends to continue his fruitful explorations without hindrance. He already says “desire to go elsewhere” musically, but still doubts he will succeed. His only fear is being labeled. “I wanted to learn jazz to be free to do what I want, to play punk, afrobeat or reggae. Jazz is what nourishes me and makes me grow as an artist, but I wouldn’t want to be judged or categorized. What I’m trying to do is respond to an inner demand, to externalize something. In music, you can’t be a better musician than a human being. Therefore, I try to understand things about myself and express them in music. It is by searching within ourselves that we reach new aesthetics.”
Léon Phal’s quintet is on tour throughout France: February 24 in La Roche s/Yon, March 7 in Aix-en-Provence, March 8 in Montpellier, March 9 in Istres, March 22 in Auxerre , March 23 in Besançon, April 6 in Gonville, April 10 in Cully, April 13 in Verdun, April 26 in Saint-Denis, May 2 in Liège (Belgium), June 9 in Caen, 14 June in Sceaux, July 16 at Jazz à Vienne.