Macy Gray
In the space of twenty-five years, Macy Gray has established herself as a major figure in contemporary soul. Her unique voice and diverse influences, most notably that of her idol Billie Holiday, have made her a fully-fledged singer of the soul music generation.
Since her first show at the Transmusicales de Rennes in 1999 with her single "I Try", from her debut album On How Life Is, the singer has come a long way and has been crowned platinum three times. In 2014, she released her highly successful album The Way. On February 14, Macy returned to the forefront of the music scene with "Reset". With an eleventh album featuring funky rhythms, hip-hop phrasing and jazzy arrangements, the American has once again won over her audience.
It's in concert that Macy Gray gives her all, revealing a powerful vocal presence coupled with an extraordinary personality.
Leon Phal STRESS KILLER
Saxophonist Léon Phal refuses to rest on his laurels. A brilliant graduate of the Conservatoire and the Haute Ecole de Musique, winner of the Nancy Jazz Pulsations and Jazz à Vienne 2019 springboards, the thirty-something has been promoted to represent the new, ebullient jazz scene with just one obsession: to push the limit.
Maintaining this course of constant progress means breaking with certain practices as well as freeing himself from codes and habits. Forget academic notions, move away from a purely jazz approach and, without losing touch, combine it with modern codes.
Instead of precisely blackened scores, Léon Phal prefers the inspiration of the moment, that which arises when, like an electro or hip-hop producer, he sits down in his studio, in front of his machines, with the core group of musicians who make up his quintet.
Connected on the same frequencies, responding to the same references, it was with them that the two previous albums, as well as Stress Killer, were made.
Léon Phal's saxophone, master of ceremonies in this fusion, sets the notes free.
With an acoustic aesthetic, Léon Phal has chosen to incorporate everything and everyone that arouses his musical curiosity. From dub to the French touch, from Jeff Parker to El Michels Affair, Stress Killer is also the first album to feature vocals in Léon Phal's music. Continuity, not rupture. The desire to go ever further, once again.
