Member Since: 12/12/2006
Band Website: rocambujazz.com
Band Members: yves francois et rocambu jazz has several members, many of us are in other bands, and we adjust the personell to the size and style that the gig requirers (we play rumbas, biguines, swing, blues, congas, sambas and highlife so we try to find what is the need for the particular gig) so hear is a listing of our tribe of musicians:
yves francois trumpet, bandleader, arranger, vocal (well, maybe animator)
frank youngwerth trumpet, vocal (animator as well)
charles shallcross valve trombone, bass
occasionaly trombonist/percussionist dave ramey shows up
dave smith clarinet, alto and baritone sax
marc smierciak clarinet, alto sax, percussion
jim christopher clarinet, tenor and baritone sax
simon kashama guitar, vocal
bruce mak lead and rhythm guitar, bass
dan nicki rhythm guitar, darbooka, djembe
ben lansing lead guitar, banjo, mandolin
joe spilberg bass
tim seisser bass
ronnie malley percussion, oud
mike tooles trap kit, occ percussion
john knecht percussion, trap kit
george lawler trap kit, percussion
on occasion ryan mayer on percussion may show up as well
it should also be added that our friends in lammajamal and mucca pazza have played with us at various times (noel tabakin,eve manzingo et gary kolar, all play with mucca, except for noah with lamajamal, an excellent group you should check out), as well as the excellent guitarist from the occidental brothers nataniel braddockyves francois also plays a lot of jazz music from the traditional and swing era. the principal musicans i play this with is an excellent band Franz Jackson leads in Dowagiac Michigan, hopefully more will happen in 2008, Franz is the most outstanding musician i have ever had to pleasure to have played with, and it is great that we are playing together, decades after the first sessions in the early 1980’s (and it has to be said that his piano player Jim Pickley is an amazing musician as well, but then franz used to work with joe Johnson one of the greatest musicians ever to grace the 88’s). certain members of rocambu and lamajamal play swing gigs as well led by Yves (usually the reed players, frank, joey, pat and george are the usual suspects, but almost all the musicians in rocambu do have a jazz background), and it is hoping that a 1920’s style New orleans band will be playing some gigs in 2008, I miss the standards like "panama" and "milenburg joys", after all, the reason I created Rocambu was to have a vechile to show the similarity of early jazz to biguine and west african highlife.
Influences: yves francois himself was influenced by the great jazz musicians he heard first in reocrds (louis armstrong, frankie newton, lips page, booker pittman, king oliver, duke ellington, slim gaillard etc), then live, and was helped (and most influenced by above all other musicians)by tenor sax and clarinet legend Franz Jackson (who still plays and sings at the age of 95). the trumpeter who yves was most touched by was the legendary trumpeter oran hot lips page, whose plunger work made yves work primarily with the plunger mute and growl, and a blues oriented intonation (curiously enough page, as well as sidney bechet , duke ellington and another musician yves played with, tenor saxophonist paul bascomb, also recorded rumbas and calypsos, unlike most jazz musicians from his generation).yves was also influenced by his family, as well, being french and the family growing up in africa, yves also listened to the french jazz musicians his mother talked about (claude luter, pierre merlin, pierre atlan, "moustache" galepides, mowgli jospin, pierre braslavsky, aime barelli, and the remarkable trumpeter irakli amongst so many greats) african, caribbean and arabic (yves met several musicians in this band from playing with the band led by the excellent tunisian percussionist and teacher najib bhari) musics as well as jazz and french chanson, indian (esp goan) populist musics (try trumpeters chic chocolate or frank fernand, both were influenced by cricket smith, as well as vocalists like jacinto vaz), and tango. these influences include le grand kalle, franco ok jazz, bantous jazz, bembeya jazz orchestra baobob, bobby benson, gold coast police band, fela kuti, bellamou messaoud, stellio, abel beauregard, rico’s creole band, leocuna cuban boys, romeu silva, blackout, noel rosa, ahmed ratip, oscar aleman, django reinhardt (just to name a few) as well as the mature jazz influenced popular music of the 50’s like esquivel, earl bostic and lynn hope, not to mention the great american jazz musicians mentioned above , this give rocambu jazz a sound not quite like any other band. we come from many different musical backgrounds to bring about this reworking of older urban populist music with a jazz background.
Sounds Like: If you mixed Biguine, old jazz, rumba's from cuba before the 1950's (sons and congas) and rumbas from congo (after the 1940's proto soukous) with a dash of highlife and samba, and some esquivel sounding orchestration on top of it all (though the vocals are more in the way of either highlife, blues or lingala rumba) you may get an idea of what the band sounds like, try these great artists: rico's creole band , orchestre creole matou, grand kalle, franco et ok jazz (during the 1950's and early 1960's), new olreans and harlem jazz horns over african populist music from the 1950's rhythms, balla et ses balladans, bobby benson, dr victor olyala (1960's recordings), barrel couppet (phillips rec 1950's), orchestra rock a mambo, bantous jazz (1960 rec), webert sicot (1960's),jazz sam castendet, when sidney bechet, lips page or oscar aleman do their latin rhythms, ahmed ratip, louis cole, blackout (a brazillian samba singer, though more for his bands than himself), leocona's cuban boys, ciro rimac even esquevil at times, for more recent recordings: bembeya jazz, orchestra baobab, buena vista social club, hope this helps!
Record Label: yves francois delmark, y f et rocambu jazz odelion
Type of Label: Indie