Largo

2003 sees the long-awaited release of Fables Of Lost Time, the album from Largo, the brainchild of the seminal jazz composer Gast Waltzing. Ever since he can remember, Gast Waltzing’s defining passion has always been music. Classically trained at Europe’s leading Conservatories, he was the founder of the Conservatoire of Luxembourg’s Jazz Department, of which he is now head. In the course of his prestigious career he has released tens of albums ranging from classical to jazz to dance and has composed the score for over 100 TV movies and cinema releases. His latest project Largo is both informed by the wealth of his past experience and yet marks somewhat of a departure.

2003 sees the long-awaited release of Fables Of Lost Time, the album from Largo, the brainchild of the seminal jazz composer Gast Waltzing.

Ever since he can remember, Gast Waltzing’s defining passion has always been music. Classically trained at Europe’s leading Conservatories, he was the founder of the Conservatoire of Luxembourg’s Jazz Department, of which he is now head. In the course of his prestigious career he has released tens of albums ranging from classical to jazz to dance and has composed the score for over 100 TV movies and cinema releases. His latest project Largo is both informed by the wealth of his past experience and yet marks somewhat of a departure.

“I’d been doing music for films for six years and I wanted to make an album that was just about me, that reflected where I am at musically”, he explains, “If musicians like Miles Davis were around today, this is what I think they would do. I’m so tired of all the backward looking that goes on in jazz right now. The original innovators were just that ... innovators, and they took influences from everything that was around them, they didn’t try to sound exactly like anyone else. Jazz is a living music, it doesn’t belong in the past. It needs to move on. Hip-hop, DJ culture, dance music, all played a part in the making of, and sensibility, of this album.”

“Most of the people I worked with on the album are friends of mine and they come from all over Europe: Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Belgium, and I think this real diversity of backgrounds is apparent on the album,” Gast explains, and there is a distinct European sensibility to this music. One that is shot through with cultural relevancy and owes as much to Bristol's trip hop sound as it does to Be-Bop or any other of its jazz ancestors. But what makes this music truly unique is Gast’s own personal vision and his highly individual take on jazz. Cocooned in his own studio (Waltzing Parke Audio), away from external interference, Gast was free to capture his musical passion ... his essence. “I am always a musician. It’s not like I wake up and decide when to schedule music in. It’s always present. I decided it was about time I made an album that completely expressed where I was at musically. What I liked.” His original intention was to do a run of 500 copies of the album and to give them to friends as gifts. It is to our benefit that a friend at Warner Music happened to hear the finished product and instantly knew that the record deserved a bigger audience.

Gast’s musical influences are wide: on the classical side he has a love of the music of Bach, Beethoven, Debussy and Ravel, then there are the Jazz luminaries: Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane and Miles Davis, moving on to the more contemporary figures of Tricky and DJ Logic. With such a deck of musical heroes, any distillation of his passions was bound to veer towards the eclectic. It’s to his credit that he has seamlessly blended such disparate worlds, with each musical terrain supporting, informing and elevating the other. Smooth but never saccharine, innovative but never dry or calculating, the album is fresh and dynamic. Like any labour of love, the presence of its maker bleeds right through onto every track, each holding a special place in his heart, “If someone tried to make me choose a favourite track off the album I think it would be impossible. It’s like having nine babies,” he explains, “each track represents a particular time or has a particular significance and they all have quite distinct personalities.”

Tracks such as Fables of Lost Time may be homages to jazz greats such as the late Charlie Mingus but no one but Gast could have created them. As much about space and silence as frenetic activity tracks ranging from the exuberant opening Hubbard cover through to the laid-back, electro-tinged Budisho have a sound, feeling, personality of their own.... A contemporary jazz album from a musician who is as passionate about the present as he is the past. A musician whose goal is to return jazz to its heyday, not through mimicking his heroes musically, but through sharing their vision and beliefs.

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10/20/03: Largo

Largo, featuring Luxembourg trumpeter and composer Gast Waltzing, perform a fusion of contemporary jazz and electronic music influenced by artists from Bach and Debussy, to Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, to Tricky and DJ Logic.
This performance is presented in cooperation with the Embassy of Luxembourg.

Largo

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