Jef Gilson by Jef Gilson

INTRODUCTION

It’s always an honour for us to re-release cool & obscure records, but as honours go they surely come no greater than bringing you music from one of the most brilliant and productive jazzmen ever to have lived: French pianist, composer and arranger extraordinaire Jef Gilson.

With his career spanning the best part of a century, Gilson has made music with a who’s who of European and American jazz greats, has written, performed on and recorded innumerable film scores, albums and 45s, ran the Palm jazz record label… yet despite all this the French jazzman remains criminally under appreciated by so many jazz fans. Look him up on the internet – there isn’t even a Wikipedia entry! We address this unfortunate situation by releasing 19 songs spanning decades of his recording career in our latest album JMANCD/LP.042 simply entitled Jef Gilson.

THE MUSIC

High points include the awesome modal masterpiece Modalite Pour Mimi; Chakan and Agnus Dei which feature a cathedral choir, and lesser-known private recordings such as Valerie’s Waltz and Valse a Quatre Temps. We include field recordings made on his trip to Madagascar, including a percussive version of the Lloyd Miller favourite Chant Inca and an unforgettable version of Pharoah Sanders’ cult classic ‘The Creator has a Masterplan’.

All in all this is one of the finest albums we have made to date, and it’s something that we have taken great pride and pleasure to be involved in. Jef Gilson is now 84 years old and wheelchair bound. This album is all about the little-known musical genius, and we have done our very best to represent his life story with the best of his music.

A lifetime in jazz from the illustrious French musician, producer, composer, arranger, band leader, sound engineer, music teacher, label-owner, and multi-instrumentalist par excellence!