Under The Tree (release date October 23) is Jean-Philippe Rykiel’s second solo album et the first in… 22 years of a professional musical career started at 17 years old and still pursued with constantly renewed enthusiasm by this exceptional musician.
During these many years, Jean-Philippe essentially worked as a talented instrumentalist, arranger and producer with other artists (Youssou N’Dour, Leonard Cohen, Salif Keita, Jon Hassell…) and recorded two albums with Tibetan monk Lama Gyurme (both highly successful), he still did compose, improvise while improving his mastery of sound treatments and recording process.
Under The Tree unfolds a panoramic view of Jean-Philippe Rykiel’s creative world over a 15 years period, from « Song For Prosper » composed in 1987 as a tribute to Prosper Niang (founder member of Xalam) to the opening « Blue World » composed in early 2003, just in time for the recording of the album.
It took many listening sessions to come to a satisfactory choice of tracks, always looking for the best and cautious with self-indulgence. The final track listing has not much to do with chronology but was lead by the resonance between the pieces that naturally found their spot Under The Tree…
Whether written (Blue World, Song For Prosper, Balafonic, Suite Aveugle), born from (re-worked) improvisations (Eau De Vie, Kovan, Conversation) or just edited without changing a single note (Under The Tree), the compositions reveal a unique and very original artist curious and passionately found of world music (especially African), of jazz, of classical western music or electronic experimentations.
« Music is also human encounters » says Jean-Philippe and as an evidence, the beautiful and quiet dialogue with the kora player Yakuba Sissoko in Conversation and the jubilatory Kovan, where Nasser Ibrahim’s tanbûr (a traditional string instrument from Kurdistan) sets Jean-Philippe’s piano on fire (or reverse).
Another guest is Malian artist Saki Kouyate whose acoustic guitar joyfully resounds in Blue World and then there is the heavenly voice of the divine Mama Kouyate in « Mali Sadjio », a version recorded by Jean-Philippe and her (under the name « La Chanson de Maalin Saadyo) for the album « Il En A Toujours Ete » from the late storyteller Mamadou Diallo.