Growing up, training, expanding alongside JJ Cale's work are probably some of the reasons why I'm so committed to spontaneity in music today. They are many who complain to see me kick the can down the road as soon as notions of work or rehearsals are mentioned... I can't imagine changing the way I proceed, but on the contrary, to attempt again and again, in his manner, to reinvent myself unnoticed.

His music has been with me since 1996, ever since I happened at a friends house on the ‘Closer to you’ CD. That strange album from 1994, initially released only on CD and cassette and since not long ago finally available on LP, was destined to shock the bluesosphere.
He had undergone a major shift in his sound, producing the album himself, adding a (lot of) synthesizer and delivering in his vocoder-laced voice. Indeed JJ was going to displease his hardcore fans. He was kept doing what he wanted to do, the way he wanted to do it, by playing American music in his own Oklahoma style: sing the blues, talk about racial problems, the musician’s hassles.

This album gave me the urge to immerse myself in a non-demonstrative blues and to move away from Nirvana for example who brought me very little light and horizons, dreaming of myself reclining in a mobile home with my feet hanging out, carefree and content ... even if his message is often that " (...) the bus breaks down and the motel's bad, you're always in a stew ".

As I gradually became acquainted with his albums, I came to find in him a guide. With a monotone voice and classic blues chords, his approach felt natural to me. I also realized that I would never know enough about this gent whose discretion with the media had made him forever mysterious, figuring that the only answers I would find would be in his discography.

Following the cancelation of a recording session in the abyss that was the first 2020 confinement, we thought it was time to give a nod to JJ. Which meant going through with the recording session, but without the singer who had hired us. And thus use it to invoke, the three of us, the memory of our hero.

As I shared my love for JJ Cale with a wider and wider circle, i found myself in the company of Joe on the keyboards and Augustin on drums and sound production. We were going to jam, impulsively, on blues in the broadest sense, at the crossroads of the genres and roads of the American Mid-South, imitating cool country, aping laid-back funk, easy swing, the blues of monotonic drum machines. Plagiarizing here the Latin tune of ‘To Tulsa and Back’, pastiching the bitter sweet ballad of ‘Shades’, or the swing and delights of ‘Troubadour’. And we’d press the rec button every time we felt we had tinkered well enough to hold it down. As mates, without any specific idea in the back of our heads, with our know-how and a "witness" voice indicating changes in parts or solos, we made an album à la JJ Cale. Trailing through his discography like a compilation.

So it was in the secrecy of a basement, with the deferred participation of singers from around the globe that we unwittingly concocted a tribute to the Tulsa Sound. In our corner of the world, at the junction of various influences which reflects a certain idea of the music we do. Played live, simply, with taste, sometimes bad taste. Light and easy-going. A composition, a theme, some solos, just like in the jazz we care for.

I’m still not sure how it took place. Over 1-2-3 days, I’m not sure? But our tribute is there. About fifteen musicians took part in the game. All of them with grins on their face, imagining what it would have been like to share a drink at a picnic table with JJ Cale.

"Frees the image of your body Fantasy is just a blink Wish I had not said that, baby If I could only close you out of my mind"
JJ Cale


There we were the three of us, with no arrangements planned. But we knew it went without saying that sitting opposite one another we’d be able to connect on last minute structures, joint stops and solo takes.

Augustin set up microphones and in his analogue table plugged in the necessities to record one song after another. He is the epitome of a passionate self-taught musician, having understood at a very young age that no recipe was going to impose itself on him. Developing his tricks and skills by instinct, trusting his taste, his desires and especially his ears. We had already played together on the two previous Banbourg albums. These few days were originally intended to be spent with him recording his third album. But his fragile health at the time of COVID had pinned him down at home.
So this album was a kind of gift that we wanted to prepare for him as well. Perhaps would he still sing on it later? Again, nothing was really premeditated.
Joe on keyboards, Augustin at the recording table and at the drums, and me at the bass and the guitar. We would glance at each other and begin. A slow tempo, brushes on the snare and a piano bar, bass walking and a microphone for me to articulate inaudible lyrics into my accomplices' headphones, chewing on my words like JJ sometimes does, and cueing the structures live.
Alternatively, a more sustained tempo, a guitar theme, a classical chord sequence with always the slightest stall spicing up the arrangement... An intro, a part A, a B, back to part A, a part C with a piano solo and two final Bs! It ain’t rocket science.
First we create, compose, set up the different parts then we assemble. We think of such or such piece of JJ Cale to give us a direction then we record.
The more we became caught up in the game, the more the idea of a third Banbourg record receded into the distance. Joe, with his skillful fingers cavorting, taking on blues lines never assumed before, the same for me and my uncomplicated pentatonic guitar solos, Augustin all the while simply grooving ... the three of us striving to get closer to the sound that we knew from JJ's albums. Thinking of the tone, the simplicity, the happiness of playing without butting heads against aesthetic doubts. Trying to be, for a few days, closest to the impression that JJ Cale's discography has left in us forever.

After a bit we figured it might be missing a horn here, a second guitar there, a violin (of course). So, knowing exactly who to ask, having tended to the JJ fan base in Geneva for quite some time already, we had 2-3 friends come down to the basement to add their skills to our songs.

And as it turned out there were 14 tracks!
But we had to get them somewhere, as lyrics were still missing! And that's where the idea of gathering musicians from all over the world, encountered during these last years of tours and concerts in Geneva or elsewhere, was born. A common email, sent a bit everywhere, was received with an immediate enthusiasm, and within a few weeks we had gathered from California to Argentina, Sweden to Florida, the voices on this album. It's true that initially quite some confusion troubled the proceedings: should one compose a melody with and write lyrics, take inspiration from and cover existing JJ Cale songs, play the imitation game, or just play one’s self? Many were those who doubted on the work to deliver. But the idea was to sing freely in the manner of a text written by themselves on a melody of their own voices.

Once the vocals collected and received from dropboxes and wetransfer stations around the world, the work of analog mixing and mastering was a breeze. The spirit of JJ Cale has hovered over our year 2020. And I believe that even more than before, I am connected mind and soul to his music.

This record is therefore dedicated in its form and conception to Patrick Bourban, known as Banbourg, who, thanks to his open-mindedness and attentive ear was able to surround himself with three pals who would otherwise never have had the chance to be inspired together in such a way, arranging and recording his compositions as numerous as the flowers of the Judas Tree. It was with my drummer friend Nelson Schaer and the pianist Maël Godinat that Banbourg's first album in Berlin would have been recorded. But as life would have it the B team was born instead and brought this album to life. Love be on you my dear friend. May we make records until you die. Joe, Augustin and I carry you in our hearts.

Also to Dunja Stanic, friend, ex-wife, neighbor and next-of-kin, who for more than 10 years dedicated herself to making the scene in Geneva magnificent. Through organizing concerts, designing a visual aesthetic, proposing vinyl-only DJ sets and battling as a pioneer for the presence of women in music, on stage, behind the turntables, and who in the face of everyday misogyny has never been recognized at her true value, which fucking sucks! ... Or when a strong personality in a woman is labeled with something else ... ! Long live the Witches and down with the world of manly, slick, judgmental music!
riprtt.ch

And to friends, close or far, who have always supported my work, through their advice, criticisms, moans and encouragements:


Thierry Van Osselt (TVO), Jakob Graf, Anissa Cadelli, Pierre-Henri Beyrière, Yvan Bing, Flora Mottini, Prosper Thon, Juliette Henrioud, Nicolas Scaringella, Tatum Rush, Eva Zornio, Raffaelel Gregoletto, Nelson Schaer.

The musicians :

Joe Baamil :
Improbable basement cool cat, producer of a nascent hip-hop in the 90s in Geneva, he gradually developed a mixed toolkit of listening skills, finesse, modesty and accuracy for understanding a project as a whole. Quick as lightning, always in tune, it’s an honor to have shared so many moments with him. A sensitive and imaginative composer, he has released more than 50 records as a side man and provides Geneva a taste for the unknown.

Augustin Von Arx :
Close friend, generous and free-spirited drummer, tireless producer in the making, precise and easy-going, he was this album’s cornerstone. Not only recording but playing. Imagining as well as leaping. Suggesting, thinking, following with his young ears the tracks’ evolution. Supporting each one of my movements for us to arrive at the end of this pharaonic project, carried out in secrecy. A luminescent and solitary soul, he is at the root of many great bands and projects, each more stunning than the last.


Additional musicians :

Thomas Abbet :
The trompetist who fearlessly parachuted himself over to us, he knew after a few listens how to deliver the perfect performance from his three pistons. Somewhere between a Mariachi trumpet and something more pop, the JJ Calian touch in his pavilion is indubitable.

Léonard Gremaud :
Friend since and for-ever, keen melomaniac and an ace with a bow, it is on the violin, essential to the sound of JJ Cale, that he distinguished himself on the album. Fine connoisseur of music from the Deep South, he grafted himself wonderfully in overdub to the sound of the album. Plays a dirty and unexpected fiddle. In a few live takes, he sliced the air and made the most binary tracks of the album lilt and swing.

Leonard Persoz:
My young pupil turned acolyte, at first following the paths proposed by his teacher and now carving his own groove, he has since become a friend and a brilliant guitarist from whom I often draw new inspirations, so much his freshness and musical personality set him apart.