The Harlem Suite project (Ropeadope – 2023)
The Harlem Suite is a childhood dream of coming to NY from my little island of Guadeloupe, and becoming a jazz musician. The tunes and arrangements were written to celebrate each step on this perilous but rewarding journey, during the 20 years spent in this iconic part of New York. The compositions reflect the musical wisdom I inherited from playing with some of the greatest musicians of our time: Roy Hargrove’s beautiful sound and impeccable phrasing, D’Angelo’s visionary grooves and unique intensity, Meshell Ndegeocello’s sense of mystery and poetry.
Many of the songs are inspired by the harsh human reality reflected in the disenfranchised lives of Black people in urban environments, while paying tribute to Harlem’s history as the birthplace of several musical revolutions.
In contrast with most of my previous work, this opus is not rooted in Afro Caribbean grooves. It nevertheless bares the mark of polyrhythms in dialogue with lyrical melodies, while embracing the aesthetics of American modern jazz, including its most recent mix of hip hop grooves and improvisation.
Throughout this record, I aspired to paint a modern fresque rich in colors, while staying true to the African tradition of music as a source of healing and spiritual uplifting.
REVIEWS
Downbeat – John Murph – Jul. 2023
“On the prancing “Time Travel,” Schwarz-Bart sublimely connects Haitian Voodoo Kontredans rhythms with a Cuban tumbao bass line without sacrificing the lithe rhythmic propulsion associated with modern jazz. His saxophone passages writhe and soar gorgeously across the shifting rhythmic bed created by Penman and Gilmore.“
Jazz Magazine – Yazid Kouloughli
“With a Franco-Caribbean-American all-star line-up, Jacques Schwarz-Bart brings together bop, electric Herbie Hancock, nu-soul and the world of John Coltrane in a remarkably coherent whole, delivering a high-flying performance that is impressive for its many technical facets, but above all touching for the portrait it paints of the leader himself in this fresco dedicated to Harlem.“
Politis – Pauline Guedj
“The Harlem Suite is a journey made up of happy and sad pieces, lively and mournful melodies, in which the author once again excels in his ability to create a dialogue between an individual experience and a socio-historical situation that is all too little.”
Le Monde – Francis Marmande
“The Harlem Suite is the perfect continuation of a work that merges with life: militant, spiritual, now installed at the summit of the great creators of jazz and Caribbean music.“
Jazzwise – Kevin Le Gendre – June 2023
“The Harlem Suite is a work of maturity from an artist who acknowledges that the past continues to inform the present, and, more to the point, fuel his own creative fire.“
le Bananier bleu – Christophe Jenny – March 2023
“With The Harlem Suite, Jacques Schwarz-Bart invites us to follow him through the twists and turns of his life as a jazzman, and the picture he paints reflects the maturity he has now reached, an unquestionable reference record. “
VIDEOS
Sone Ka La 2 Odyssey
By the time tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart recorded Soné Ka-La in 2005 (“simply infectious” — JazzTimes), he had amassed credits with D’Angelo’s Voodoo touring band, Roy Hargrove’s Crisol and RH Factor, Erykah Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello and other greats. In the spirit of those searingly original artists, the French-Jewish-Guadeloupean Schwarz-Bart set out with Soné Ka-La “to pioneer a sophisticated modern jazz language cross-pollinated with Afro-Caribbean rhythms and melodies inspired by the Gwoka traditions from my native island of Guadeloupe.” Now, after some 15 years of musical travels — during which Schwarz-Bart explored post-bop on The Art of Dreaming, voodoo music on Jazz Racine Haïti, Jewish liturgical music on Hazzan, and contemporary European jazz on Shijin — it was time for him to find his way back to the initial Soné Ka-La concept with a renewed approach. The result is Soné Ka-La 2 — Odyssey.
REVIEW
“Life affirming joy and a vivacious ebullience of spirit.” “Off-the-beaten-path and as beautifully exotic as sound can be”.
ALLABOUTJAZZ
“JSB continues his Guadeloupean Odyssey between (…) “the sounds of his roots”, afrobeat and soaring D’Angelo-esque R&B grooves”.
JazzTimes
Winning return to his native gwoka tradition for one of the best saxophonists on the planet, opening trails of freedom full of contemporary creole flavors.
Citizen Jazz
“A powerful, clever, multilayer work”.
Jazzwise
“A beacon of Caribbean Jazz”.
Jazz News
”From a social point of view, the music of Jacques Schwarz-Bart is a bridge between cultures and ethnicities. This is no coincidence, since the saxophonist comes from a German-Polish-Guadeloupean family and thus grew up multiculturally. Exactly this openness can be heard on Soné Ka-La, Odyssey. It is a soundtrack of integration.”
Jazzthetik