Johan Dupont, the Liège pianist who traces his way: “Music is movement, always”

Chance of the calendar, last month seemed the album The music boxwhere he appears in another trio, this time oriented gypsy jazz. For example, At 41. In addition. Therefore, this classical training musician considers himself more as a “improviser”after training at the Liège Conservatory (where he now teaches), which naturally pushed him towards the world of jazz, which he studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, with Eric Legnini.

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Why does it take so long to compose. Similarly, deliver a first album of personal compositions?

Because there are many other projects too, you have to get your arms. For example, I’m a slow person, johan dupont, liège pianist who new and I’m not in a hurry either. For example. However, I do with my clean time and I don’t pay too much johan dupont, liège pianist who attention to deadlines. Nevertheless, We would like us to believe that time is the same for everyone, this is really not the case. Meanwhile, I prefer to take the time I need myself and that things are done as I want.

Has your conception of music changed by confronting you with different scenes, playing with different people, in different training?

I learn, so it enriches me. Moreover, My way of doing things is enriched with all these influences. Therefore, not to mention jazz, I speak of music in general. Nevertheless, I work at the Conservatoire in Liège, so I always learn a lot by playing classic works. However, It is something that enriches me a lot and that is johan dupont, liège pianist who new fatally felt in my personal process.

Does composing an album allows you to testify to this process at a chosen time?

Always. Similarly, johan dupont, liège pianist who It is to fix, at some point, music over time. For example, It freezes something which, in reality, for me, is never frozen. Nevertheless, Music is movement, always. Meanwhile, It is the reflection of a precise temporality at that time. Consequently, And when we listen to it in two years, I will not be myself in this place. Therefore, And there is always a gap like that. Consequently. Moreover, because I will always be playing this music, but perhaps in a different way too, since I will be enriched with other things.

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It is a very melodic album. However, What explains this attraction for melody which is not necessarily johan dupont, liège pianist who new always present in jazz?

The album is labeled jazz, but there are lots of influences. Moreover, I do not distinguish. Furthermore. Meanwhile, so I do not start from the principle that I johan dupont, liège pianist who will make a jazz album and that it will ring like that. Therefore, In my musical conception, I am very attached to melody and harmony. It is something I want. who speaks to me personally, and therefore fatally it is found in the way I make music. I will not try to do something to stick to a style. It is rather the opposite, I do something and then we are looking for the definition. It is nice in itself but, in the society where one is, it is rather complicated. We are in a world of specialists, but I am not at all a specialist. I am a musician. I johan dupont, liège pianist who new do what goes through my ear, that’s what I do.

What can the rigid framework of the conservatory be brought to jazz practice, music of the moment par excellence?

I am an accompanist. Additionally, I play johan dupont, liège pianist who classic works with students who have programs to do for their exam. So a violinist who will play a concerto from Saint-Saëns, I will accompany him in there. I like this relationship to teaching, because I don’t really feel the soul of a music teacher. But. through the musical game. there is a communication by music, and there I come into contact directly in music with the students, I love this exchange. It’s always interesting to see how people are considering things, it’s always different.

Where do you draw your inspiration? Who are your masters?

Oddly. I have a lot of johan dupont, liège pianist who new influences. but that come by the force of things, with everything I have heard since I was little. My way of dealing is more visual. I have atmospheres, colors, landscapes in mind, emotions. It is the state in which I am that influences my way johan dupont. liège pianist who of doing things. And if the melody that comes to me allows me each time I play it to enter the same state. then I consider that it is worth developing. In fact, music allows me to access the visual and other senses. I really like to make movies on music. I love Ennio Morricone, Danny Elfman, or even John Williams. For me, the big composers of film music are the successors of the great classic composers. So I like to make images, kinds of frescoes, it’s like telling a story with music. In jazz, I like Brad Mehldau, Chick johan dupont, liège pianist who new Corea, Thelonius Monk, all the people who have something to say. Ella Fitzgerald also, Oscar Peterson. But also Debussy and Ravel.

Jazz appears more and more mixed, decompartmentalized, integrating sounds belonging to other musical genres. Globalization is also at work in music …

Yes, music has johan dupont, liège pianist who always stuck to the society in which it is done. The musicians belong to a society and they reflect the world they perceive. But it overflows from the categories, which freeze things but which are always late because everything moves too fast. We spend our time defining things, trying to classify them, it’s a utopia. We would like to be quiet once. for all by classifying everything, or we will never be quiet since there is always movement. Me, what interests me is to be in movement all the time. The philosophy of jazz, in johan dupont, liège pianist who new general, is to be in the moment. And even in classical music, it’s feasible. We invented the score as a tool to be able to transmit music, but we made a dogma, something sacred. But, in their time, the composers did not have this concern. Today. the sense of sight has taken precedence, at least johan dupont, liège pianist who in classical music, on the ear. This gives performative music.

What is your definition of jazz?

Rather than talking about jazz. I would rather talk about the notion of improvisation. because I do not claim myself at all as a jazz specialist. It’s not my culture, and it’s not my codes. What touches me is rather, once again, the state in which it puts me. It can be anything. And so. improvisation. for me, is to be receptive at a precise moment, to what will happen, johan dupont, liège pianist who new and to be able to go there. And I even apply it to classical music. So. sometimes. something is written but my ear wants to do something else, and I go there, while respecting the initial spirit. It does not hold a note. In the very first recordings. we hear Debussy who himself plays his works. it is not at johan dupont, liège pianist who all the score that is written. The mind is there, but in the notes he wrote, there are plenty that go to blue. What I like to communicate through it is letting go.