Prepare to be astonished by the bold compositions and stylish approach of the Le Boeuf Brothers, jazz twins with an ear for innovation, drama, and a touch of humor. Part of a growing New York jazz scene characterized by odd time signatures, current indie rock, and the influences of artists such as Radiohead, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Herbie Hancock, Remy and Pascal Le Boeuf (saxophone and piano) play a sophisticated brand of modern jazz that, despite it's complexity, remains upbeat and accessible to any audience.
"Even by the uncanny standards of identical twins, the Le Boeuf Brothers have forged a remarkably close connection. What sets them apart from other siblings who share the same DNA and a preternatural level of communication is that they practice it in public, on the bandstand, to unique artistic effect." (Metroactive).
The Le Boeuf Brothers' list of awards is a lengthy one, including Independent Music Awards for Best Album & Best Song; 1st place in the International Songwriting Competition, 12 ASCAP Young Composer Awards and various awards from Downbeat Magazine. Additionally, the Le Boeuf Brothers have received grants/commissions from Chamber Music America (CMA), ASCAP/IAJE, and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA). The Le Boeuf Brothers have also toured internationally and performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, the Umbria Jazz Festival, and Jazz @ Lincoln Center.
The New York Times says of Le Boeuf's latest album, "this group has an impressively self-assured new album which reaches for the gleaming cosmopolitanism of our present era." Their upcoming album "In Praise of Shadows," (Nineteen-Eight Records) supported in part by a contribution from the Edward & Sally Van Lier Fund of the NY Community Trust, is set to be released on October 18th, 2011. What differentiates this album from others is that the Le Boeuf Brothers continue to sculpt their compositions after the initial recording process using modern production techniques, sound collages, and layered arranging/recording methods. Additionally, the CD includes both sheet music and audio stems of the recordings to remix, as well as a short video. This new direction lays the foundation for the next decade of jazz innovation.
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** Enhanced CD ** - Only at 19/8, can you get the CD extras: stems for remixing, sheet music and 'making of' video, included in your purchase (in the download as well)
The Le Boeuf twins - saxophonist Remy and keyboardist Pascal - announce an ambitious step in their creative development with their new album, In Praise of Shadows. Joined by fellow twenty-somethings Mike Ruby on tenor saxophone, Nir Felder on guitar, Linda Oh on bass, and Henry Cole on drums, as well as the Myth String Quartet, the Le Boeuf brothers have created a work that spans the gulf of modern jazz with indie rock and intelligent electronic music.
"When Remy and I discussed the various possibilities for making this record, we agreed that we wanted to have our own 'sound'," Pascal explains. "We decidedto do this by incorporating elements outside of the jazz genre in our music." For Pascal, who studied electronic music production at Berklee in the summers between his semesters at the Manhattan School of Music, this entailed using various sound design, sampling, and remix techniques; he cites Aphex Twin and Radiohead as examples. Indeed, on "Everything You Love," which features his own stark vocals, the majority of the track is constructed from sampled audio from elsewhere in the album. "In jazz, there are many compositional devices that can create motion and communicate emotion with the listener," Pascal elaborates. "Similarly, there are compositional devices that can be used in electronic music. My goal in making this record is to bring these production-based compositional devices to the jazz genre and to encourage like-minded jazz musicians to do the same." To facilitate this exchange, the CD of In Praise of Shadows includes both sheet music and audio stems of the recordings to remix, as well as a short video.
For Remy, this meant adding the Myth String Quartet to various tracks, writing some of his arrangements after the initial recording sessions to incorporate the improvisations. "What makes In Praise of Shadows different from our previous work is that we took a layered approach to composing, recording, and production," Remy says, citing a specific example on "Circles" that weaves composition and improvisation together in an intricate fashion. "I decided to form aspects of the composition around the improvisation. When Pascal's comping moves outside the harmony during my solo, I decided to orchestrate the strings to follow this motion and bring it to the attention of the listener. In a sense, I got to accentuate my favorite parts of the solo by bringing them into the foreground. Every solo is a composition, but I decided to take this a step further."
The Le Boeuf Brothers are joined on this adventurous project by a close-knit group of collaborators, most of them classmates at the Manhattan School of Music and fellow participants at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. "Being surrounded by a supportive and inspiring peer group is extremely important to me," Remy says."Artists collaborate, inspire, and help each other." Pascal concurs: "We've learned a great deal from our peers," he says. "Many of the friendships we've forged at institutions such as the Banff Centre, the Manhattan School of Music, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and living in New York have nurtured creative development and led to performance opportunities. When everyone is on the same team, musical growth and success are shared across the board."
The Le Boeuf twins namecheck a varied range of influences in the conception and creation of In Praise of Shadows. They look to Radiohead, a band that has indirectly shaped modern jazz repertory and aesthetic over the past 15 years, iconoclastic auteurs Sufjan Stevens and Björk, and envelope-busting electronic musicians Telefon Tel Aviv and Squarepusher for sonic inspiration. They feel a sense of kinship with texturally-minded modern jazz musicians such as Kneebody, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Aaron Parks. "I think that many modern jazz and indie rock artists are trying to achieve a sense of individuality by breaking away from the traditions they are born out of," Remy postulates. "Both modern styles tend to favor more harmonic motion with less common chord progressions, and they embrace more textural variation. Modern jazz and indie rock appeal to a younger audience; I think the reason they are linked is because they speak to people of the same generation."
Pascal's own theory goes further: "Due to the growing presence of music education, modern jazz seems to have taken on an atmosphere which tends towards intellectual influences. I feel this same way about electronic music, rock and music production. I want to hear music with emotional substance that is also nerdy enough to think about. My favorite albums incorporate honest emotional content, intelligence and creative production."
The Le Boeuf Brothers graciously acknowledge the support of the Edward & Sally Van Lier Fund of the NY Community Trust, which funded a significant portion of the creation of In Praise of Shadows."Pascal and I both feel quite fortunate and grateful to have had their support in actualizing our musical vision," Remy says.
"Projects such as the Le Boeuf Brothers' In Praise of Shadows should help quiet the debate on whether or not jazz is stagnating...The eleven tracks show the brother's proclivity for sumptuous melodicism and well thought-out compositions." - AllAboutJazz.com