Pagan Panic - Best Albums of 2018 #19
The lyricism of this recording borders on the epic, which in itself makes Pagan Panic pretty damn special. But the casual ease in which it’s offered up makes for a contrast in expression that puts this recording on an entirely different plateau. Some albums have an emotional impact of such strength that it elicits the feeling of having undergone a journey, of experienced an arc not unlike a storybook character. The 2018 release from Manu Pékar is one such example, and one of the best to see the light of day in 2018.
Dave Sumner -2019- Best Album of 2018. #19
https://www.birdistheworm.com/best-of-2018-19-manu-pekar-pagan-panic/
Pagan Panic
What I like about it: I adore how immensely expressive this music is, even though it frequently adopts a laid back delivery… in that way a storyteller can instill a sense of the epic from the casual surroundings of a campfire setting and with a voice that matches the calmness of the flickering flames. I like how the string quartet sometimes enhances the folk music qualities, sometimes adds a graceful chamber presence, and sometimes takes flight in a way that transcends both influences. I like how this album exhaustively spans the gamut of emotions, and, yet, in the end, reaches its conclusion sooner than I’d like and leaves me wanting more. I have been addicted to this recording from the very start, and that addiction hasn’t faded even a little bit.
Dave Sumner - 2018 Album of the Day - Dec 27th 2018
https://www.birdistheworm.com/album-of-the-day-pagan-panic-by-manu-pekar/
For (And More)
"Guitarist Manu Pékar and multi Woodwind player Daniel Beaussier have known each other for over 20 years...This time, it is the less "thru-composed" side of their association that the 2 musicians, used to meet on a regular basis to share the great thrill of free improvisation, have decided to document...This recording appears as a suite of short pieces (the shortest of the 26 selected pieces last 45 second, the longest barely 5 minutes) titled after great artists (from Igor S to Wayne S to Hermeto P, Charles B, etc...). Covering a wide spectrum of moods, formal settings and language proposals, this precious and refined music displays at every moment the flawless technique of each member but also their vast knowledge and an actual commitment to the great game of improvisation. A project as sincere as it is an achievement."
Stéphane Ollivier - Jazz Magazine 2017
For (And More)
Here is some very good new music.
Daniel Beaussier & Manu Pékar – For (and more) (Futura Records)
"The duo of wind instrumentalist Daniel Beaussier and guitarist Manu Pékar chose about a third of the seventy brief improvisations they recorded together, and considering how enjoyable those included turned out, it leaves me wondering what got left on the cutting room floor. Beaussier utilizes a nifty array of instruments, including oboe, bass clarinet and English horn, and Pékar’s choice of guitar does an admirable job of complementing each one. The grinding “Robert F” and chaotic “Bruno M” show the musicians are willing and able to jack up the temperature, but for the most part, this album consists of contemplative pieces that aren’t necessarily always tranquil, but definitely instill an ambiance that could lead to all kinds of potent daydream imagery. Jean-Lou Deschamps and Pierre Marcault add some violin, effects and percussion, adding texture to a canvas that had plenty to begin."
Dave Sumner - 2017
https://www.birdistheworm.com/author/dvsumner/
https://www.birdistheworm.com/the-round-up-love-is-everywhere-and-so-are-you/
Time and Motion – Reflections on the First Twenty Years of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra by Tommy Smith
"...Over the years the SNJO has enjoyed access to some of the music world’s most phenomenal arrangers. This great art is often taken for granted, so it only seems right to name-check people like Maria Schneider, Joe Locke, Makoto Ozone, Florian Ross, Geoffrey Keezer, Christian Jacob, the late Fred Sturm, Manu Pékar, Pino Jodice, Michael Gibbs, Bob Mintzer and Michael Abene. They have been pivotal to the establishment of the SNJO as an energetic contemporary jazz orchestra... "
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra - Tribute to Wayne Shorter Featuring Branford Marsalis
"...The centrepiece, however, was Footprints, a staple of jazz jam sessions the world over, here reimagined by Manu Pékar as a mini-epic that allowed Alyn Cosker to further develop his in-time-out-of-time drum solo mischief-magic and Marsalis, on soprano, to explore dancing and strutting sequences as well as fashioning a gorgeous minor blues with pianist Steve Hamilton..."
Read the complete article on Branford Marsalis' site
Rob Adams - The Herald 2013
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra - Tribute to Wayne Shorter Featuring Branford Marsalis
"...It was another performance of sustained excellence from this band, with their extended take on Manu Pékar’s arrangement of Footprints a particular highlight..."
Read the complete article here
Kenny Mathieson - The Scotsman 2013 5 stars
Et Après ?
"...His passion for writing shines in a music "conceived" from beginning to end, be it on high energy tunes (Ban Am) where the band sounds much bigger than a mere quartet, or in pieces where the composer sets up a climate more inclined toward mutual listening (Portrait de Sacha)...A band that cannot be defined as a simple addition of soloists, but a unit where everyone enriches Manu Pékar's music "
Philippe Vincent - Jazzman 2013
Et Après ?
"...A flawless unit serving a thought out, energic and generous music, where each one expresses himself with a lot of sincerity. The connoisseurs will, of course, particularly appreciate the guitarist's playing and sonority."
Culture Jazz - http://www.culturejazz.fr
Et Après ?
"...Manu Pékar (...) is mostly recognized as a formidable guitarist..."
L'hebdo du vendredi
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra - Tribute to ECM Featuring Arild Andersen
"The prospect of a bass player as main soloist on every tune might induce qualms, but Andersen is no ordinary player. His majestic sound (augmented by imaginative use of real-time looping technology) and sheer musicality ensured that every solo was a fascinating adventure.
The music – as might be anticipated from this source – tended to lean to the slow and often sombre, notably in Manu Pékar's rather dark setting of John Abercrombie's Ralph's Piano Waltz, but even within that overall frame there was no end of variety."
Kenny Mathieson 2010 4 stars
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra - Loud Jazz and Electric Miles featuring John Scofield
"...If Mike Gibbs' setting of Scofield's Groove Elation, enhanced by drummer Alyn Cosker's New Orleans shuffle, emphasised its big city R&B qualities, by contrast, Since You Asked, seen through French arranger Manu Pékar's eyes, took on an almost pastoral hue, with Scofield's blues picking extending to a fingerstyle coda evoking sundown on the Mississippi delta."
Rob Adams - The Herald 2010 4 stars
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra - Tribute to John Coltrane
"...Pino Iodice arranged Coltrane's solo from Satellite for the whole band, Rick Taylor added new dimensions to Afro Blue, and Manu Pékar and Paul Towndrow offered contrasting but fascinating takes on the first two parts of A Love Supreme.
The band coped superbly with complex and unfamiliar music, with plenty of space for exciting and inventive soloing."
Kenny Mathieson 2007 4 stars
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra - Tribute to Chick Corea
"...Some of the arrangements made an immediate in-your-face impact, notably Joe Locke's mercurial, highly energised "Inner Space" and Fritz Reynold's "Spain".... Others were more subtle in their design, as in Geoffrey Keezer's beautifully textured 'Eternal Child', with a lovely alto solo from Laura MacDonald, and Manu Pékar's breezy, distinctly Gallic account of Corea's early classic "Tones for Joan's Bones"..."
Kenny Mathieson 2005 5 stars
Hekla
"This CD is build as tributes, naming their addressees either by their names (Ellington, Brel), or their first names (Kenny), even by enigmatic initials (A-S, J-B, J-S-B, W-S). Each musician finds his most appropriate place in this chart which, bridging past memories and present, forms a call to depths. The name Hekla designates an icelandic volcano similar to the one by whose chimney Jules Verne's heroes went down to the center of the earth. Hekla : search for refinement, smell of remembering for everything but nostalgia.
The quartet's music, illuminated by Daniel Beaussier's reeds and Manu Pékar's guitars, owns the coherence and compacity of a string quartet and a touch of fragility makes it extremely touching, beyond an almost too smooth, Metheny-like surface. Acoustic bass and drums take great care to mold moving backgrounds, aware of atmospheres and colors, like for stage music. One perceives a lot of science in the making. It would be a real pity to miss this discreet album, a bit too contemporary for pure jazz, a bit too written for free improvisation : on the fringe smugglers, great-hearted bandits.
Noël Tachet - ImproJazz 2005
Hekla
"Hekla is a quartet displaying colors using the two leader's specialties, guitarist Manu Pékar and multi-reed Daniel Beaussier. They share the compositions on the album, mainly build around one suite decicated to Jacques Brel, and another one dedicated to various composers. Between John Abercrombie and Pat Metheny, Manu Pekar knows how to use his effects. Daniel Beaussier layers his parts in total coolness. Gautier Laurent and Christian Mariotto provide the ideal rythmic impulse. This music needs time to settle, and, with the last piece, Remembering W.S., the quartet achieves a masterpiece."
Thomas Marcuola - jazz Hot Internet
Hekla
"The music recorded on this CD reflects a comprehensive listening of musics which marked the individualities of this group : jazz, pop, classical, world and rock. Through this repertoire, the musicians show their respect to the Masters who guide them with their musical universe as well as their spirituality."
Les Allumés du jazz
Hekla
"Mainly build around two suites, Le Plat Pays, by Daniel Beaussier, and Remembering Suite, by Manu Pékar, this CD is a string of tributes to Jacques Brel, Johannes Brahms and his 1st symphony, Arnold Schönberg's Pelleas and Melisande, Duke Ellington, and so forth. The music is, nevertheless, free and original, with true melodic generosity. Manu Pékar's impeccable style is extremely satisfying....combined with the warm sounds and the verve of multi-reed man Daniel Beaussier. The Remembering Suite, although less immediatly seducing than Le Plat Pays, seems more coherent. The concluding Remembering W.S. is especially stunning. Daniel Beaussier delivers, on the soprano saxophone, a wonderful solo, that one might also hear as a systematic and very mastered exploration of Wayne Shorter's style, showing a natural affinity."
Nicolas Brémaud - Jazzman 09/2004
Passages - New Songs
"I was very impressed with Manu's first effort in writing for a large ensemble... Manu has a talent for writing; no question about it..."
Dave Liebman
Passages - New Songs
"His mastery of colors and forms commands respect of everybody. With time, the project blossomed, until this recording greeting bassist Riccardo del Fra and saxophonist Dave Liebman. Around personalities as different, and sometimes opposed, as alto saxophonist Guillaume Orti, trumpeter Stéphane Belmondo or tenor saxophonist Kurt van Herck, the ensemble builds and blooms. The work of the orchestrator also makes room for the soloing guitarist, and one regrets a bit that he didn't give himself more space. Nice work of writing and orchestration."
Xavier Prévost - Guitare et Claviers
Passagess - New Songs
"Manu Pékar displays actual arranging talents, through a full and generous writing. Except for two pieces borrowed from the repertoire (Contemplation by McCoy Tyner and Automne, a hardly recognizable reharmonization of Autumn Leaves), the compositions are all originals and impress by the sophistication of their timbres and voicings - avowed influences: George Russell, Kenny Wheeler, Gil Evans. If Liebman is fully featured, the orchestra's young soloists are not in arrears and punctuate "New Songs" with their gems."
Gérard Rouy - Jazz Magazine
Passages - New Songs
"Passages, the 14 musician big band led by Manu Pékar, is a fine, very fine orchestra. One will acknowledge that the guitarist has a very personal way to project orchestral volumes (on No Jive J. Yves) as well as to shape more volatile, less determined, outlines. If some parts can bring up to mind Gil Evans (the introduction of Automne, for instance), others use riffs to dynamically strengthen the soloists' interventions. The blend between various big band regulars (like Stéphane Belmondo or Geoffroy de Masure) and some freelance musicians (Guillaume Orti, Daniel Casimir, David Liebman) allows Passages to cover a large palette of moods."
Sylvain Siclier - Jazzman
Passages - New Songs
"After a growing career, Manu Pékar forms his own quartet with Jean-Yves Jung, Gautier Laurent and Christian Mariotto. Here, for the recording of "New Songs", he brings together a collection of well-known guests in a big band format, for a kind of huge and modern Jam Session. Ten pieces with a very refined sound, a program of searches and inventions."
Artistic award: 4/5 Technical award: 4/5
Hi-fi Vidéo
Passages - New Songs
"This 14 musician big band among whom figure Dave Liebman (ss), Riccardo Del Fra (b), Stéphane Belmondo (tp, flg), is led by Manu Pékar (g, synth, compositions, arrangements), So one understands the pleasure for an arranger to conduct such an ensemble. He uses all available colors and orchestral formulas. A pleasant recording."
Serge Baudot - Jazz Hot
Passages - New Songs
"...The 14 musicians gathered to form this exceptional group are all "heavies". Beginning with guitarist Manu Pékar himself, who writes most of the themes and conducts the band, after an American career debut in the company of some of the greatests... Settling down with delight in an atmosphere, be it to play with the strangeness of a harmony, the brilliance of the horns, or the afterbeat of a rythm, Manu Pekar never dwells. He doesn't lead the audience into weariness with systematic formulas..."
Philippe Laidebeur - La Voix du Nord
Passages - New Songs
"Resonances, dissonances, assonances : guitarist, composer and arranger Manu Pékar has a very personal way to project orchestral volumes ; to splash with sharp punctuations his spinning partitions. Displaying wild energy and tight cohesion, the very nice Big Band "Passages" has understood this well. The soloists emerge from this orchestral density - among them Dave Liebman, formerly with Miles Davis-(...) emotionnaly rich, this production offers a large palette of atmospheres, fed with the experience of these 14 musicians from different backgrounds : from Big Band regulars to the wildest adventurers. Taking off in the second part of the recording, introduced with master hand by Riccardo Del Fra's bass on Automne."
B.de W. - La Voix Du Nord
Passages
...The evening concerts at the Jacques Brel Hall received Passages, led by Manu Pékar. An incredibly rich jazz, played by top ranking musicians, inspiring admiration."
Nord Matin
Passages
"...The memorable nights of the summer season were to be found in the company of Sonny Rollins, (...) Keith Jarrett, (...) Martial Solal Dodecaband, (...) and also during the festival of Montpellier which offered some french discoveries of the best quality (...), notably the Collectif Régional de Jazz Nord/Pas de Calais (13 musicians), more simply (and more nicely) called "Passages"; Great energy, fine orchestral colors penned by Manu Pékar, the guitarist, leader, arranger, who just released a (very successful) CD in quartet with Dave Liebman as a guest (Columbia/Sony Music)..."
Xavier Prévost - Guitares et claviers
Passages
"Manu Pékar's Passages : full of poetry.
Manu Pékar plays guitar, Jean-Yves Jung piano, Gautier Laurent acoustic bass, Christian Mariotto drums, and they play Manu Pékar's compositions. It's a very personal jazz. They listen to, and surprise, each other; the four part invention lead them to borders where emotions come from sonorities or dialogs: this is live music, full of poetry, without any showoff, up to meditation."
L'Alsace
Passages
"Manu Pékar's Passages, a winning unit where, around the leader guitarist, the piano of Jean-Yves Jung, the acoustic bass of Gautier Laurent and the drums of Christian Mariotto joyously swing. With a lot of openness and freedom too. The essence of jazz, always."
David Jaunet - L'Est Républicain
And Guests
"...A great surprise! From his apprenticeship at the Berklee College of Music, he brought back, besides his qualities as a composer, a rare mastery of acoustic, electric and "synth" guitars..."
Franck Bergerot - Le Monde de la Musique
And Guests
"Saxophonist Liebman, reknowned player, composer, has found a gem in the emotionally rich and technically acute guitarist Pékar. Many lovely and provocative moods."
The New-York Jazz Letter
And Guests
"Manu Pékar is the leader of Passages, the Big Band from France's Northern area. Away from large musical ensembles, he favored intimate climates with acoustic, electric and synth guitars. It's superbly constructed, by an architect aware of beautiful things and materials. One think of Metheny, Scofield, Abercrombie with a very european touch which gives its personnality to the whole. Far from being a copy or an imitation, this is an album of a great new guitarist. Above all, don't hesitate!"
Olivier Cauvin - Guitarist
