Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms, Jean

To Continue

Label: Ambiances Magnetiques Country: Canada

"DZ's new album To Continue (2007) takes the group's unique features further: cohabitation between layers of scored music and free improvisation, polyphony, polyrhythms, irregular meters, complex forms, rich harmonies and polymodalism. To Continue presents eight new Derome originals, all given top-rate performances bursting with creativity, tightness, drive, and fire.

The Dangereux Zhoms are currently reaffirming their jazz roots, while maintaining a radical discipline of collective improvisation and sonic experimentation.

The Dangereux Zhoms are balancing imagination, humor, and physical playing. Their music is full of intense improvised passages and catchy tunes. It makes the music completely unclassifiable, which agrees very well with the group's leader. As Derome said to Coda in 1995: "I'm playing music. Not jazz or any other genre per se; only music, period."

In Exclaim!, Richard Moule described the musicians in this ensemble as "adventurous players who gracefully jump, straddle, and zigzag along every corner of the musical realm. Avant-rock, jazz styles ranging from Free to Bop and Cool, contemporary academic music, and funk only serve as springboards for their impish and creative excursions."

Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms was formed in 1992 for the opening concert of the 10th Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV). The group gave many concerts in Montréal and Québec, and in major Canadian cities, in addition to appearing at around 10 international festivals (Germany, France, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, USA). In 2001, Jean Derome was awarded an Opus Award from the Conseil québécois de la musique, for his international career, both on record and on stage.

The ensemble's repertoire includes over 60 Derome originals, 25 of which appear on their first three albums: Carnets de voyage (1994), Navré (1995), and Torticolis (1998)."-Ambiances Magnetiques

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