FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN THE 64TH ANNUAL GRAMMY® AWARDS

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN THE 64TH ANNUAL GRAMMY® AWARDS

French Composer/Trumpeter Yohan Giaume Presents 

WHISPER OF A SHADOW Opus 1

A Sonic Celebration that Traces the Musical Lineage Between Europe, Africa and America Through the Eyes of Romantic Composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Whisper of a Shadow is a Cross Cultural  Project Featuring Evan Christopher, Herlin Riley, Nicholas Payton, Roland Guerin, Aaron Diehl, and More

F.Y.C in this category:

• Best Jazz Instrumental Album

French Composer/Trumpeter Yohan Giaume Presents 

WHISPER OF A SHADOW Opus 1

A Sonic Celebration that Traces the Musical Lineage Between Europe, Africa and America Through the Eyes of Romantic Composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk

Whisper of a Shadow is a Cross Cultural  Project Featuring Evan Christopher, Herlin Riley, Nicholas Payton, Roland Guerin, Aaron Diehl, and More

F.Y.C in this category:

• Best Jazz Instrumental Album

 With his music, Mr. Giaume seems intent on loosening the grip of the nostalgia that often threatens to bury classical music and jazz, and to reveal an essential soulfulness that transcends categories.

 With his music, Mr. Giaume seems intent on loosening the grip of the nostalgia that often threatens to bury classical music and jazz, and to reveal an essential soulfulness that transcends categories.

         Collaborations are quite common projects in the jazz world, and in most forms of music, for that matter. Collaborations, however, are slightly more rare when a modern day composer's album is in conjunction with a composer from the nineteenth century. Such is the case with the works of Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) melding with composer and trumpeter Yohan Giaume. [...]  The French composer’s encounter with nineteenth century American Gottschalk led to this boldly imaginative creation of centuries apart symmetry […] that demonstrates the timeless and generational connectivity at the core of this project”.  

 ★★★★

         Collaborations are quite common projects in the jazz world, and in most forms of music, for that matter. Collaborations, however, are slightly more rare when a modern day composer's album is in conjunction with a composer from the nineteenth century. Such is the case with the works of Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) melding with composer and trumpeter Yohan Giaume. [...]  The French composer’s encounter with nineteenth century American Gottschalk led to this boldly imaginative creation of centuries apart symmetry […] that demonstrates the timeless and generational connectivity at the core of this project”.
 ★★★★

ABOUT

French composer, trumpeter and ethnomusicologist Yohan Giaume has travelled the world, exploring the roots and intersections of music among the Americas, Europe and Africa. While in New Orleans, he discovered the music of 19th century Louisiana Creole composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) who, like Giaume, travelled for much of his life, taking every opportunity to hear, study and absorb music from the cultures he encountered in Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas.

The parallel routes taken by Giaume and Gottschalk 200 years apart — and their mutual interest in Afro-Creole and vernacular music — inspired the birth of Whisper of a Shadow, a dialogue between the Romantic era and our contemporary world through an adventurous musical « conversation » between two composers from two eras and cultures.
In this first opus, imagined as a musical travelogue, Giaume weaves a marriage between the European musical world of the Romantic era and the African-American culture of New Orleans where this journey begins. The multicultural environment of 19th century New Orleans echoes through African-Creole melodies, opera arias, romantic poetry, rhythms of Congo Square and its Caribbean influences, brass bands, minstrel shows, gospel, and burial music, but also through lush jazz orchestrations sublimated by textures of chamber music.

Giaume collaborates with renowned musicians from both sides of the Atlantic with an emphasis on New Orleans based artist, Evan Christopher (who also co-directed with Yohan the compositional interpretations). Amongst the 23 artists on the project feature drummer Herlin Riley, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, bassist Roland Guerin, pianist Aaron Diehl and a French string quartet. Other special guest is poet Chuck Perkins; accented by Caribbean percussionists and singers as well as Louisiana based trombonists and tubists.

 
 
 

        French trumpeter/ composer Yohan Giaume has taken on a major undertaking for his first recording as a leader. The results are exquisite and deeply moving. [...] On many tracks you feel that this could be a film soundtrack of Academy Award consideration. The blend of classical strings, ethereal clarinet, and swinging brass on Yohan’s brilliant compositions and arrangements, is both intoxicating, as well as dancing feet ecstatic. I can hardly wait to experience Giaume’s new projects. This one is very special...”   - Audiophile Audition ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Inspired by Louis Moreau Gottschalk's wanderings in New Orleans, trumpeter Yohan Giaume imagines a brassy dialogue with his American elder.

 ★★★

        French trumpeter/ composer Yohan Giaume has taken on a major undertaking for his first recording as a leader. The results are exquisite and deeply moving. [...] On many tracks you feel that this could be a film soundtrack of Academy Award consideration. The blend of classical strings, ethereal clarinet, and swinging brass on Yohan’s brilliant compositions and arrangements, is both intoxicating, as well as dancing feet ecstatic. I can hardly wait to experience Giaume’s new projects. This one is very special...”   - Audiophile Audition ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Inspired by Louis Moreau Gottschalk's wanderings in New Orleans, trumpeter Yohan Giaume imagines a brassy dialogue with his American elder.

 ★★★

Released by Life Celebration Project on February 12, 2021. Read the full press release here. For more information contact contact@yohangiaume.com

Thank You For Your Consideration