Photo Credit: Antoine Manichon (2006).
Clockwise: Julien Brunetaud, Sebastien Girardot, Evan Christopher, Guillaume Nouaux and David Blenkhorn.
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In January, 2006, New Orleans-based clarinetist Evan Christopher accepted an invitation from the City of Paris in conjunction with the Cultural Services Department of the French Embassy in the United States. During his 12-week stay, he found a rhythm section of four young, enthusiastic Paris-based musicians who shared his passion for classic jazz idioms including New Orleans Jazz, blues, Boogie-Woogie, and small-group swing.
Together, they formed the Jazz Traditions Project with the goal of offering dynamic presentations that explore and demonstrate the broad range of possibilities for music rooted in the vocabulary of early jazz styles. In the Spring of 2006, their Paris debut in famed Parisian hot-spots Caveau de la Huchette and Le Bilboquet led to summer festival appearances in the South of France and then, invitations for presentations at the 2007 French Quarter Festival in New Orleans and for the Sidney Bechet Society in New York City. Other European appearances include the international jazz festivals in Haugesund, Norway; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Vitoria, Spain.
The group's attention to fundamental values of virtuosity, individual expression, and the idea that jazz traditions are to be celebrated, not merely preserved, is evident in their first CD: "Introduction: Live at the Meridien, recorded at the prestigious Lionel Hampton Jazz Club in the Meridien Hotel in Paris.
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