NEW RELEASE – CEDRIC CAILLAUD & GILLES REA

Bosses Play Bosses.  

With an artist as thoughtful as bassist Cédric Caillaud, you always eagerly await his next release. In the past, the Parisian has produced original projects of Basie and Jobim. Here and now, we’re caught by surprise by his duet with guitarist Gilles Réa (who was also on With Respect To A.C. Jobim). They play six pieces by bass legends and six pieces by guitar heroes. Great idea.

First thing you notice: What a fabulous fat and resonant bass sound! The bottles rattle behind the bar. What a superb guitar player. Not a note wasted. (engineered and mixed by Caillaud himself)

Second thing: Here’s a duo capable of handling various moods. They groove till the cows come home, check out Christian McBride’s In A Hurry and Pierre Michelot’s Elephant Green. They are lyrical like inspired Goethes or Rimbauds, listen to Philip Catherine’s Galerie des Princes and Oscar Pettiford’s The Gentle Art Of Love. (Caillaud’s lines full of desire, notes like bittersweet question marks)

Third: They have bat ears. Never lose sight of each other like mother and grandmother on a food market. They are disciplined like classical musicians yet spontaneous like skateboarders on a ramp.

Finally: All of this during the course of one song.

It’s not easy to find records where the taste of cover repertoire is so immaculate. Except for Ray Brown’s well-known Gravy Waltz, it’s full of hidden gems. Yes, one could argue that a (otherwise fine) tune or two is superfluous on an album that suffers, like many contemporary records, from the post-LP-era-disease, stretching the hour-mark by a margin. But, what grace and flow and interaction.

Wouldn’t you like Joe Pass’s A Foxy Chick And A Cool Cat? When was the last time you heard anyone play it?

Don’t you love Django Reinhardt’s Anouman? Live and learn, honestly a song I forgot existed or didn’t register. Sublime exercise of melancholy, Caillaud solidly underlining the message of Réa, a man between love and sorrow staring at the trembling leaves outside the window.

Caillaud, descendant of Ray Brown and Pierre Boussaguet, Gilles Réa, excellent guitarist with a big foot in the tradition, stand naked in the face of silence and come out on top. They ‘Play Bosses’ but in fact they’re bosses with a big B here themselves!

Buy on Bandcamp here: https://cedriccaillaud.bandcamp.com/album/c-dric-caillaud-gilles-r-a-play-guitar-bass-bosses