Bright And Sweet Virginie Teychené

• 1 Don't Get Scared 03:37
• 2 Angel Face 06:02
• 3 Rat Race 02:20
• 4 Bless My Soul 03:40
• 5 Dry Cleaner From Des Moines 03:42
• 6 Goodbye Pork Pie Hat 05:10
• 7 Don't Explain 05:21
• 8 Tight 04:28
• 9 Familiar Dream (The Seductress) 02:33
• 10 Shiny Stockings 04:24
• 11 Living Room 05:02
• 12 Pra que discutir com madame 02:42
• 13 Midnight Fair 04:43
• 14 Por toda a minha vida 03:51
• 15 I'm Gonna Go Fishing 03:04
• 16 I Don't Know Enough About You 04:07
• 17 La Chanson de Maxence 04:23
• Total Runtime 01:09:09

Info for Bright And Sweet

This album confirms it, Virginie Teychené is a musician with a voice. She strolls through her imaginary museum dedicated to jazz singer-songwriters and brings her own light to each of its rooms. A grazing light in Familiar Dream, a bright light in Tight, the light of dawn in I'm Gonna Go Fishing and that of dusk in Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.

The contributions of her co-musicians are intense due to their restraint; Gérard Maurin's weightless double-bass arrangements, Stéphane Bernard's chiaroscuro piano playing, Jean-Pierre Arnaud's dance-like drumming, and last but not least, Éric Le Lann's inspired trumpet playing, all make Bright and Sweet an exemplary jazz album, where all the miniatures that make it up are in fact merely beginnings.

This album is a rather unusual kind of ‘songbook’, focusing on jazz singers who are also songwriters. It includes seventeen tracks which function as if they were the A and B side of a single album: the first side is more classical (up to the track ‘Tight’) and the second more ‘sophisticated’ in style, either in terms of the subjects the songs address, or in terms of the musical arrangements.

Cautiously and precisely, these singer-songwriters each carved out texts their voices then brought to life. A number of their songs will always be associated with their names: ‘Rat Race’ leads back to Mimi Perrin just as surely as ‘Don’t Explain’ carries Billie Holiday’s hallmark.

When singers write their own texts, the stories their pens bring forth closely conform to their real lives, their worries, their dreams; they allow us to take a peek at, and listen in on, a secret part of themselves, in a snap-shot image of a given time in their lives.

Singing their ‘lyrics’ is like opening a magic box, bringing us closer to them not only through the subjects they address, the images and the figures of style they use, but also because the way they select one word over another reveals their relationship to rhythm and sound and creates a pre-existent form of music within their music. Their choices highlight their receptiveness to one sound or another and this sometimes forms a connection and resonates with that of the performer.

The performer interacts with the songwriter above all in terms of the material aspect of their lyrics, identifying with the sounds the words can make and the way they fit together. Each word buds and then flowers in their mouth, spreading through their whole body, until it is set free and allowed to flow into the listener’s ear.

The choice of tracks on this album was influenced as much by the meaning of the texts and the way they sounded as by the melodies which underpin them. I hope you will gain as much pleasure from listening to them as we did from recording them.

Virginie Teychené, vocals
Stéphane Bernard, piano
Gérard Maurin, double bass
Jean-Pierre Arnaud, drums

Virginie Teychené
was born in Draguignan, France (Var). At 20, while studying law and literature, she started singing professionnaly. Fond of Jazz music and a interested in singers, she listened to everything she could find within reach : female voices (Maria Callas, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, etc.), but also male singers (Chet Baker, Joao Gilberto, Eddie Jefferson), enabled her to acquire a self-taught yet sound vocal technique and a large and deep knowledge of African American vocal art.

In 2003, she decided to devote herself entirely to her passion for jazz. She then joined the “Workshop Experience” (W.E), which enabled her to meet a large number of jazz musicians. Through many projects and nourished with numerous influences (Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley…), she developed a personal way of introducing themes and improvising, as an instrumentalist, and she followed the traditional course of any Jazz musician: concerts, clubs, jam sessions… During the Jazz Festival of La Seyne sur mer, she drew attention of critics: “a joyful style, combining genuine emotion and dynamic improvisation; a deceptively simple vocal art bringing back to the essence of music; a perfect balance between relaxed sophistication and innate sense of swing.”

Her first album, “Portraits” (Altrisuoni), recorded with musicians from the “Workshop Experience”, was issued at the end of 2007. It is acclaimed by the critics, in France, Europe and the U.S : “One never expects to find such perfection in an artist unknown until then”. (Renaud Czarnes, JazzMan); “The charm starts from the very first notes” (Yann Mens, La Croix); “Our favourite!” (Radio Swiss Jazz); “A pure, low voice” (Newsweek). In the Summer 2008, she performed on prestigious Jazz Festivals; during the International Vocal Jazz Competition in Juan les Pins, she wins the” Prix du Jury” and the “Prix du Public” (they had never been won by the same artist before); her concert for the “Radio France /Montpellier Jazz Festival” was broadcasted on France Musique. Xavier Prévost, a very famous and respected Jazz critic said about her “In her first album, this young jazz singer shows a remarkable maturity, mastering the idiom of jazz with a very deep expressivity. In these times of mawkishness, her genuineness warmth the heart, the souls and the spirit”.

Her second album, “I feel so good” (Altrisuoni), will be issued in may 2010. Two famous French Jazz musicians, Jean-Pierre Arnaud (drums) and François Chassagnite (trumpet) have joined the initial team : Gérard Maurin (arrangements, bass) and Stéphane Bernard (piano). The 14-track song list shows that Virginie Teychené belongs to the tradition of those who have made the history of Jazz; that she is not only a singer, but also a real interpreter of songs, a musician, a scat perfomer, a genuine Jazzwoman. For her abilities are wide: American Jazz standards, Vocaleses, Brazilian or French standards, original compositions… “ No doubt about it, a star is born, whom to be reckoned with”.

Booklet for Bright And Sweet