Guillaume Nouaux & the Clarinet Kings

Inspired by a record store find many years ago Guillaume Nouaux has finally brought his most ambitious project to fruition. The inspirational records were two volumes titled Zutty Singleton and the Clarinet Kings, featuring the drummer with the clarinet wizards of his day. As a drummer who has had the opportunity to play with a host of today's greatest clarinetists Guillaume Nouaux wondered how tough it would be to gather them all on one record. Perhaps surprisingly herding jazz cats was more pleasure than pain and he recruited no less than eleven clarinetists for this double disc. They are; Evan Christopher, Antti Sarpila, Frank Roberscheuten, Engelbert Wrobel, Aurélie Tropez, Lars Frank, Eiji Hanaoka, Jean-François Bonnel, David Lukàcs, Jérôme Gatius, Esaie Cid. Most are from the European classic jazz scene but several came from other continents. For consistency across the album each is paired in clarinet-piano-drums trio, the formation Nouaux says he most favors as it frees him for maximum self expression. Four pianists are used, each selected for the strength of their left hand in a base-less setting. They are; Luca Filastro, Alain Barrabès, Harry Kanters, Jacques Schneck. 43 year old Nouaux is a regular at all the major festivals in Europe as a classic jazz specialist. He's performed with Ken Peplowski, Bob Wilber, Scott Hamilton, Harry Allen, Scott Robinson, Warr