On The Sunny Side Of The Street (et quelques rues plus loin)

CD On The Sunny Side Of The Street (et quelques rues plus loin) Tchangodei

"Tchangodei was born in Benin (formerly Dahomey). His name means thunder and lightening. He is one of the most surprising pianists I have ever had the pleasure to hear...he has made more than twenty recordings as a soloist and with Steve Lacy, Archie Shepp, George Lewis, Mal Waldron, Sunny Murray, Sonny Simmons, Louis Sclavis...

The few records of his I know arrived by post. On their covers wer splashes of colour - pictures he had painted himself. Inside was mysterious music that sounded as if it had escaped from the paintings: straightforward, precise, rhythmic, and at the same time fragmented, expectant. It might be jazz - and then one of course thinks of Monk, because of the way the music strongly stresses absence and power, rhthym and silence. It's also a kind of literature beyond good and evil, laid out like a journey to the end of night, alternating between furious tantrums and melancholoy on the installment plan. The ghost of Louis-
Ferdinand Céline is nearby, in other words...." ~ Yann Plougastel