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The music
The @-quartet (pronounce "at quartet": @ as in @coustic) is a formation created by Didier Verna in 2006. This group constitutes a point of arrival as well as a point of departure in the guitarist's career.
A point of arrival because the repertoire, entirely constituted by original compositions of its leader, is like a summary of all the influences that affected his musical evolution until now (except for jazz-rock: it would be another band that would probably be called e-something. This is actually a project under consideration...). One can find medium jazz, ballads, some very bop tunes, Brazilian colors, a touch of binary and some pieces heavily tinted with free-jazz. In other words, a sum of multiple influences. Some compositions are 15 years old while some others were written 3 weeks before the band was actually created.
A point of departure because we are more than the sum of our influences. The repertoire, although of various styles, remains coherent thanks to the guitarist's personality, very apparent both in composition and improvisation. By enrolling the best rhythm section one could possibly dream of, Didier Verna also wanted to let the music express itself, in some way: imposing only very few things and letting each musician's personality blossom allows a music to emerge, that is not necessarily the one that was expected in the first place. Finally, the very "free" approach of some tunes produces some kind of spontaneous, instantaneous and collective musical composition which constantly offers new perspectives of evolution.
The musicians
Gilles Naturel
Composer, conductor and sideman, he possesses all the qualities of a great bassist: swing, precision, tempo, inventivity, and above all an exceptional sound which is not far away from that of Paul Chambers, with whom he shares the very rare ability to execute superb solos with the bow. Today, he is one of the most demanded bassists in France. He played and/or recorded, among others, with Ray Bryant, Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Johnny Griffin, Didier Lockwood, Michel Legrand, André Ceccarelli, Alain Jean-Marie, Laurent Fickelson, Laurent de Wilde, Jeanne Lee, Sarah Lazarus...
Guillaume Naud
He studies Jazz piano at the CIM in Emannuel Bex's class, and attends a Deug in musicology at the Paris VIII St-Denis university with Max Hediguer and François Jeanneau. He has been teaching piano at CIM since 1998. He played and/or recorded, among others, with Sonia Cat-Berro, Youn Sun Nah, Marc Thomas, Sophie Alour, Jean-Luc Arramy, Gilles Barikosky, Stéphane Belmondo, Jean-Daniel Botta, Larry Browne, Daniel Bruno-Garcia, Raphaël Dever, Vincent Frade, David Georgelet, David Grebil, Arnaud Lechantre, James Lewis, Pierre Maingourd, Dominique Mandin, Manu Marchès, Fabien Marcoz, David Neerman, Ichiro Onoe, Emi Oshima, Patricia Ouvrard, Philippe Pilon, Jean-Pierre Rebillard, Olivier Robin, Frédérick Tuxx, Pierre-Gérard Verny, Olivier Zanot, Yoni Zelnik.
