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Saturday 20 February 2016

Yet another review of Roots and Leaves on All About Jazz

And a third review of my CD Roots and Leaves from Edward Blanco just appeared on All About Jazz. "A dynamic voice in the Jazz world today", "obvious mastery of the guitar", "the firm roots and foundation from which to develop the international recognition he so well deserves", I'll leave the rest for you to read !

Thursday 26 November 2015

New review for Roots and Leaves on All About Jazz

A new review of my CD Roots and Leaves from Chris Mosey just appeared on All About Jazz. "Dazzling guitar lines", "Pat Metheny tradition, but sunny and melodic", I'll leave the rest for you to read !

Thursday 22 November 2007

@-quartet CD review in All About Jazz

From the review:

Verna is a force of nature. He has the technique and talent to take it to another level.

That's the best part of it. The rest is... well, not all reviews are bound to be good, right? On the other hand, eventhough I find it a bit severe, I must admit that I mostly agree with what it says... At least, somebody speaks of the album on this important site.

Friday 19 October 2007

@-quartet CD review in eJazz News

A new review for the CD has just appeared on eJazzNews. Here it is, from George W. Carroll:

Talk about leaving an impression.....Didier Verna is a jazz guitarist dealing in melodic & harmonic invention. His Metheny-esque improvisational delivery is compromising, intellectual, non rigorous with a superb technique, connected with an extraordinary command of his music. In fact Verna's music is brilliantly interpreted & compelling in it's content. His music portrays images & sounds of his influences which have been by default...... Quiite positive!

@-quartet CD review on Contemporary Jazz

A new review for the CD @-quartet has just appeared on Contemporary Jazz. Here's the review by John Luciano:

@-Quartet (At Quartet) is a very promising debut recording from a part-time musician and self-professed UZEB fan. By day, Didier Verna is a computer researcher but he’s left the computers and synths at the office and has delivered a very accessible acoustic album. @-Quartet is a great example of what contemporary jazz should be. It’s certainly not smooth jazz. Although it’s acoustic, I have a hard time defining it as straight ahead and that’s the beauty of jazz, isn’t it? These nine compositions are fresh, melodically challenging and engaging. Upon first listen a number of guitarists on the scene came to mind, but Didier definitely has his own voice. Rather than fall into the comparison trap, I’d ask you to take a chance on this very talented musician and make your own comparisons. Two tracks that really stood out for me are "Les Maleties," which took me back to early Spyro Gyra, circa Morning Dance-Catching The Sun, for the guitar piano interplay, and "Paris-Nice" which has a nice aggressive feel to it.

Saturday 15 September 2007

@-quartet CD review in the Indie Music magazine

The @-quartet is featured as a "Spotlight CD Review" in current issue of the Indie Music magazine.

Here is the review by Darryl Gregory:

Didier Verna is in quartet mode with his new CD @-quartet. Verna steps out in front with his beautifully melodic guitar playing and leads his gang of four through nine tracks of seemingly effortless arrangements of original jazz. The difficulty lies in how to categorize his take on jazz. In the opening track, there is definitely a bossa feel, and yet we also have that feeling of West Coast smoothness in some tracks, and then there is the jumpy-intricate improvs of be-bop. Since I’m a big fan of eclecticism in art, I choose not to categorize, but for the sake of a review all I can say is get the CD and enjoy.

In true quartet fashion, the players each bring their unique voice to the group and something greater than the parts arises. Guillaume Naud’s piano playing is in the right places and complimentary to Verna’s melodic direction. Their interaction is evident throughout, but especially on track four, “Song for L." Gilles Naturel’s bass walks and sings, and his time is right in the pocket. A good jazz drummer always amazes me. David Georgelet definitely has that amazement factor down, not because he is fancy or intricate, but because he plays like a vocalist - he knows how to make the kit sing and follow not only the rhythmic structure, but the melody line as well.

Only a part time musician (Verna’s other gig is as a computer researcher) this CD definitely has a full time sound. You’d think that these guys have been on the road for years -- their sound is that tight and complimentary. Definitely a great addition to any jazz collection.

Monday 11 June 2007

Monday Morning

Sometimes, it's hard. You don't sell many CDs, you hardly get one 5 lines review out of dozens of requests. And then, a Monday Morning, you go check your cdbaby page, and you find this from the last customer ...

great CD of original straight ahead contemporary jazz

This is a very good CD (I gave it the highest rating). The songs are original and good, and the musicianship outstanding. It is not overplayed, it is not underplayed, everything fits together well. Verna has two of the songs available as mp3 files on his site, check them out (the rest of the CD, except for one or two songs, is similar in sound). The sound is modern but not too abstract, very listenable and flowing, it is more straight-ahead than fusion. The solos are terrific, Verna is an outstanding jazz guitarist. His tone/sound is more like Metheny than Scofield, but his lines are his own. I'm looking forward to his next CD.

... and then, you go happy again. I just wrote a new song called Monday Morning :-)