Perpetual Motion (A Celebration of Moondog) Sylvain Rifflet & Jon Irabagon

• 1Oasis06:01
• 2Heat On The Heather04:39
• 3Bird's Lament03:06
• 4Black Hole07:04
• 5From One To Nine03:41
• 6Round Paris01:41
• 7Aska Me02:19
• 8Fleur De Lis06:20
• 9Maybe06:22
• 10Nero's Expedition01:34
• 11My Tiny Butterfly03:52
• 12From The Jazz Book No. 203:38
• 13From The Jazz Book Extended03:06
• 14Santa Fé03:16
• Total Runtime56:39

Info for Perpetual Motion (A Celebration of Moondog)

A prominent activist on the French new music scene, the saxophonist Sylvain Rifflet has a musical culture that goes far beyond jazz, taking in experimental rock and contemporary music of all sorts. In this daring multimedia project, conceived in collaboration with fellow saxophonist Jon Irabagon, Rifflet has breathed new life into the art and spirit of Moondog, the iconic blind American composer and revered pioneer on the jazz avant-garde/minimalist scene who rubbed shoulders with the great and the good, inspiring the likes of Charlie Parker, Allen Ginsberg and Philip Glass. This subtle reworking, a blueprint for creative reinvention, is available here in both audio and video versions.

“We want to re-construct Moondog’s music it the way jazz musicians re-invent standards, and decided to adapt the music for the two of us, Jon playing mostly alto saxophone, me clarinet and tenor saxophone, plus members of my band Alphabet.“ (Sylvain Rifflet)

“Perpetual Motion” is Sylvain and Jon’s first common project, even though they have known each other for almost twenty years now (from the time when they played in an all-star college band of one of the major amusement parks of the US).

Developing separated brilliant careers in France and US, they have kept in touch, sharing musical thoughts and thinking of a way to work together one day.

Discovering they were both sharing a very special interest in Moondog’s work, they have decided to pursue a project inspired by his remarkable musical output, with its jazz, folk and street sound influences, across musical genres.

Sylvain Rifflet, tenor saxophone, clarinet, electronics
Jon Irabagon, alto and tenor saxophones
Benjamin Flament, percussion
Joce Mienniel, flutes and MS20
Eve Risser, piano, electric harpsichord

Sylvain Rifflet
Ever since he was a teenager and his discovery of Stan Getz‘ legendary album Focus, Sylvain Rifflet had dreams of making a record that would revisit the same format, and give new impetus to the saxophonist’s very successful blend of classics and jazz. It was an ambitious project, but also an opportunity which Verve has now provided.

Steeped in the spirit and methods of the album that Verve originally released in 1961, Sylvain Rifflet presents us with Re-Focus: a rewriting of Focus, a tribute to two elders he admires, and simultaneously a faithful reflection of Rifflet’s own universe. A new ambitious step in Rifflet’s musical career which affirms his genius.

In 1961 with Focus, composer Eddie Sauter has written his name into the “great classical composers” tradition, when he proposed a kind of “real” concerto except that, jazz oblige, the part that fell to soloist Stan Getz, who had commissioned the piece, was not only performed by him, it was improvised. The 20th century was marked by a new rivalry between, on the one hand, written scores (to which the majority of classical composers continue to have recourse), and on the other hand, recordings (that particular process whereby improvisers leave a trace of their work for future generations). The two approaches, which are in no way contradictory, were reconciled when Focus appeared in 1961. The marriage between stave and disc, classics and jazz, paper transcriptions and what philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin called “mechanical reproduction” couldn’t fail to fascinate Sylvain Rifflet, laureate of the 2016 “Victoire de la Musique” for his album Mechanics. To date, Sylvain continues to defend the influence of classical music on his work.

Booklet for Perpetual Motion (A Celebration of Moondog)