Description

Tracks :
1 : Introduction by Kurt Overbergh 2 : My Life 3 : Also Sprach R2-D2 4 : Song Of The Universe 5 : Komti 6 : Barfly 7 : We Play To Win! 8 : Space Ladder 9 : Leila 10 : Martinitram 11 : Louie Louie 12 : Springwater + 13 : Playfield 14 : House On The Left Side Of The River

The seven-piece terror jazz-combo -sounding sweeter than ever, though- once again recorded everything live at AB in September 2009. The group initially concentrated on re-working jazz compositions by Charlie Parker, Sonny Clark, Mal Waldron a.o. After three albums, things seem to have changed. Apart from “Song Of The Universe”, composed in the sixties by the rather obscure organ player Baby-Face Willette, most of the album consists of original compositions. The result is surprisingly cheerful. Jazz is still the main root of the band, which we can hear clearly in “Leila”, a kind of tribute to Ornette Coleman/James Blood Ulmer. The rest of the tunes keep a lot of the improvisational aspect of jazz in mind, but are also influenced by African pop music, folk, 60s soundtracks (e.g. John Barry), etc. After making their own version of “No One Knows” (Queens Of The Stone Age) and “Blue Monday” (New Order), the new cd has another all-time favourite to become a Franco-classic: Richard Berry’s “Louie Louie”!

Meanwhile the personnel line-up of Franco is more impressive than ever with a.o. founding member Elko Blijweert (Wim Vandekeybus, Tip Toe Topic, The Rudy Trouvé Septet, ex-Kiss My Jazz,…), Karel De Backer (Novastar, ex-Dead Man Ray, …), Joris Caluwaerts (ex-Zita Swoon, The Go Find) and Rudy Trouvé as special guest composer/musician.

Musicians :
Elko Blijweert – Frans van Isacker – Joris Caluwaerts – Karel de Bakker – Sigrid van Rosendaal – Thomas Sainderichin – Tim Van der Poel – Rudy Trouvé – Saar Van de Leest