Three more concerts for Herve Trio

Three more concerts for Herve Trio

By Paul W. Blair

JAKARTA (JP): Most of the overseas musicians who took part in
Jak Jazz '94 have already flown out of town. The majority were
heading for places far different, both culturally and
climatically, than Jakarta.

Herve and his comperes, on the other hand, are still in the
country for three more concerts this week. They were in
Yogyakarta on Tuesday evening, will be in Surabaya this evening
and in Balikpapan on Saturday night. These appearances and his
group's Jak Jazz participation have all been arranged by the
local French Cultural Centre.

During his Jakarta stay, Herve recalled that he grew up in a
home where both classical and jazz records were played. But, he
says, he didn't really like his parents' Louis Armstrong and
Oscar Peterson records until he was about twelve years old.
"Then suddenly they really started to affect me. Their intensity
and their swing touched me greatly."

"I spent ten years studying composition, classical piano and
percussion at the Paris Conservatory," says Antoine Herve, "but
ultimately the relative lack of freedom began to bother me. My
piano teacher warned me over and over again that playing jazz
would ruin my classical technique. By that time, though, I didn't
care."

"Some time back, I went through a period when I was really
involved in totally free improvisation. Then during the late
Eighties I led a 17-piece big band playing a lot of funk-flavored
heavily electronic music. It wore me out. Traveling around with
such a big group, with all their instruments and all their
different personalities, is very much like having to deal with an
entire rugby team. This trio format suits me just fine."

Jak Jazz audiences who heard sets by Antoine Herve's trio also
found much to enjoy. His partners are twin brothers: Francois
Moutin on bass and Louis Moutin on drums. Both are self-taught
musicians, with the latter displaying some particularly
unconventional instrumental technique.

They sound wonderful as a unit. Their playing is sprinkled
with delightful music and the visual interplay among them during
the course of a tune is also a pleasure to witness. Herve says
that playing with the Moutins makes him feel as if he's driving a
finely-tuned and responsive Ferrari.

"We've worked together on and off for about six years. They
have incredibly keen ears and react instantly to everything I
play. The trio format can be quite orchestral. But at the same
time, it lets me have lots of space and air and breathing room.
When I came to the Jak Jazz festival last year, I played solo
piano and mostly did my own compositions. With the trio, we're
doing standard songs or jazz standards for the most part: Miles
Davis' All Blues, Dave Brubeck's In Your Own Sweet Way, some Bill
Evans tunes, Caravan, My Romance, both Rhythm-a-Ning and Well You
Needn't by Thelonious Monk, things like that.

"We're finally going to make a trio recording in January, with
release of the CD scheduled for March. And yes, I'd really like
to come back to Indonesia. We'd be happy to play in jazz clubs or
at universities and anywhere else for people who really want to
listen. Still, it's so hard to sit at home in France and figure
out how to work out the logistics. Whom do you call in Bandung or
Singapore or Hong Kong to make the arrangements? Maybe someday
there'll some kind of a network and an established circuit of
clubs where we can perform. That would really be great."