Quint'up II Mario Canonge & Michel Zenino

• 1Pa plis (Instrumental)03:01
• 2KL's Wedding (Instrumental)04:25
• 3Mila (Instrumental)05:12
• 4Who cares (Instrumental)06:48
• 5Eti Anman (Instrumental)05:09
• 6Who speaks When I Speak (Instrumental)05:52
• 7So Fresh (Instrumental)05:10
• 8Retoño d'Esperanza (Instrumental)06:27
• 9Bad Bagad Be Good (Instrumental)05:13
• 10Anse Madame (Instrumental)04:18
• 11Dog Walk (Instrumental)04:48
• Total Runtime56:23

Info for Quint'up II

On the music scene for a several decades, this remarkable jazzman has become a key figure in the realm of jazz. Not only recognized for his talent but for his compositions as well. As a leader, he has written some of the most beautiful pieces of Caribbean music of the last decades before deciding to follow a more “Jazzistic” path with Rhizome. This orientation was confirmed first with Mitan, released in 2011, then with a particularly rich year 2018. At the beginning of the year, Quint’up, co-lead with his long-time accomplice Michel Zenino, agreed with all the critics. And in November, Mario presented Zouk Out, his jazz review of the contribution of zouk to Caribbean musical culture. After Kapital in 2020, in duet with Erik Pédurand, it is the return to the quintet which opens the year 2023, with the second volume Quint’Up II of the successful formation created with Michel Zenino.

Martinican pianist Mario Canonge and Marseilles double bassist Michel Zenino form an atypical duo that juggles all the standards like balancing musicians in the history of jazz. They have been performing at Le Baiser Salé every Wednesday night for over ten years, and as they are also excellent composers, they wanted to write a repertoire for a jazz quintet, to extend their duo, based on interaction, and a strong musical telepathy, towards an expanded formula in the spirit of the great hard-bop quintets of the 1950-1960s (Jazz Messengers, Cannonbal Adderley, Clifford Brown & Max Roach, Horace Silver… The result is striking, magical, and fluid, as if the music was obvious, because this formidable quintet does not offer us a dusty jazz anchored in the past, but a music of today, powerful, festive, and sensitive, that happily mixes hard-bop and Caribbean music in a crazy creative energy, where melodies, harmonies, and rhythms mix well in the best of worlds. Mario Canonge and Michel Zenino have surrounded themselves with Parisian musicians, but all from the Americas: Cuban saxophonist Ricardo lzquierdo with such a warm sound, US trumpeter (and flutist) Josiah Woodson, whom we don’t know very well but who will soon make a name for himself, and the excellent Guadeloupean drummer Amand Dolmen (who has become a fixture on the French jazz scene for several years).

The musical maturity, the care taken with the compositions, the choice of the musicians, and the intense complicity which unites Mario Canonge and Michel Zenino, make of “Quint’Up” a major album, where the pleasure is combined with the exigence. An album that should definitely take Mario Canonge out of the Caribbean ghetto in which he has too often been locked up for him to finally enter the world of great jazzmen, just like Michel Zenino, in that of great composers.

Mario Canonge, piano
Michel Zenino, double bass
Arnaud Dolmen, drums
Ricardo Izquierdo, saxophone
Josiah Woodson, trumpet

Mario Canonge
is a pianist from Martinique F.W.I. He starts playing in his teen years and accompanies the church choir at Francois Church in Martinique. In1979, he starts studying music in Paris and takes part in several bands. In the early 80s, he mainly plays Latin music, notably with Manigua, before forming along with Nguyen Lê, Ultramarine, a jazz-rock-fusion band. Very much inspired by the two most famous Caribbean pianists, Marius Cultier and Alain Jean-Marie, he quickly wins recognition for his talent and starts being quite much in demand (Lavelle, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nicole Croisille, Ralph Thamar, as well as Carter Jefferson, Chico, Freeman, Turk Mauro, Simon Spang-Hanssen…).

He also forms Sakiyo with Michel Alibo and starts a solo career with « Retour aux sources » in 1991. It is a turning point in his career which leads him to go back to his roots and its music, mazurka and beguine, mixed with jazz and zouk. With his group Kann’ he performs a lot, thus reaching a vast public from the F.W.I and Metropolitan France. For several years the quartet plays overseas as Mario keeps on playing with other artists as well (Kassav, Malavoi…) and recording in studios all styles of Caribbean music for Beethova Obas, Michel Jonasz, Laurent Voulzy…

In 2002, Mario creates Sakésho with Andy Narell, Michel Alibo and Jean-Philippe Fanfant. The group releases two CDs and a DVD and takes part in many festivals. When he is not on the road, he enjoys playing with his old friend Etienne Mbappé, as well as Richard Bona, Gino Sitson, Manu Dibango whose African influences keep on broadening his already wide spectrum.

In 2004, new inspiration with a jazzy but yet Caribbean sound on his latest album Rhizome. Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Antonio Sanchez and Roy Hargrove also take part in this journey and a year round Pan American tour starts with Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez. In 2008, Mario releases a “live” album with Linley Marthe and Chander Sardjoe and takes Rhizome back on many tours around the world. Other projects see the light, like for instance a piano and double bass duo Mario creates with Michel Zenino, or a piano duo with Alain Jean-Marie. Meanwhile, Mario also accompanies singers like Tangora, and Viviane Ginapé.

In 2011, Mario Canonge releases “mitan“, a jazz album welcomed by the critics. At this point “mitan” is not only the title of his album, it is the “half-time” of his life. “The beginning of a new adventure, led by a desire to look forward, to grow and always evolve, a desire to reach and, with my own fingers, lightly touch the essence.” During the course of the summer, Mario and Michel Zenino play at Jazz à Porquerolles. The concert is filmed and is the base of a DVD released early 2013.

By the end of the year, Mario plays on Dominica’s guitarist Cameron Pierre album, “Radio Jumbo”. He then meets Courtney PineThis who called him to play on “House of Legends” released late 2012. This period sees also the birth of a new promising trio, CAB, with Blick Bassy, a Cameroonian singer, and Adriano Tenorio DD, a young Brasilian percussionist. The band is touring on a regular basis and prepares an album to be released in 2014.

For the past few years, Mario has been in quasi-permanent residence at Le Baiser Salé, with double bassist Michel Zenino. Every Wednesday, they revisit the standards of the repertoire as a duo. Sometimes, the formula increases with brass instruments during concerts. Finally, in 2018, the two friends produce the album Quint’Up, which pays tribute to this concept, with the help of Arnaud Dolmen (drums), Josiah Woodson (tp, fl) and Ricardo Izquierdo (sax). In this prolific year, Mario is back in the fall with Zouk Out, a new concept album which, as its name suggests, fuses jazz and zouk in a delightful opus which also features Ralph Thamar, Annick Tangorra, Ralph Lavital etc. Zouk Out also contains a track sung by Erik Pédurand. It is on this occasion that the two men met. The meeting works and takes shape during a residency that gives birth to a brand new duo record, Kapital, which is released in October 2020.

This album contains no booklet.