Monniot Merville duo

(FRA)
contemporary folk jazz

Playful and poetic musical conversation. Two major players in today’s French jazz offer a mind-blowing minimalist spectacle, where free improvising meets newly treated evergreen folk songs.

Born in Calvados, saxophonist/composer Christophe Monniot became known in Pori a couple of years ago, when La Campagnia des Musiques á Ouir, including him, charmed the audience with their wonderful

country avant-garde.

Graduation with honours from the Caen and Paris Conservatoires didn’t diminish Monniot’s hearty sense of humour. He has since recorded and toured with Marc Ducret, Laurent Dehors, Daniel

Humair, Aldo Romano and many others. He found his spiritual twin in François Merville, whose idiosyncratic drumming is often likened to conjuring. Merville started as a pianist, but couldn’t

resist the call of drums and jazz, even though he studied classical music, won several conservatory prizes and played with the world famous modern classical maestro Pierre Boulez.