Afro Latin Vintage Orchestra's new album Last Odyssey finds the French band in fine form, creating music with Jazz as its foundation laced with strains of Ethio and Nigerian Funk combined with Latin Percussion and rhythms. By taking the ''heaviest'' elements from each genre and distilling it down to its most potent form, the band's true identity is revealed and sets them apart from their influences.
Founded in 2007 with a rotating cast of members and ranging in size from a 20 piece band to 12 that contributed to this album, the core musicians consists of 6 members: Masta Conga (perc), Benjamin Peyrot Des Gachons (keyb), Elvis Martinez Smith (guitar), Philipe Vernier (sax), Jb Feyt (trumpet) and David Battestini Quadri (double bass). At its heart is Masta Conga who's the designated ring leader and primarily responsible for the concept and production of this album. ''ALVO is not a classic group which repeats, It is a space of creation all around of various revolving musicians according to projects.'' says Masta Conga.
Having released 2 well-received albums previously, Definitely Roots in 2009 and Ayodegi in 2011, which were both primarily live recordings, ALVO took a different approach to the creation of the new record with Masta Conga recording the rhythm base for the tracks then adding each element in the studio as each musician came in for their session, ''This method consists of a new shape of writing music for me. Less spontaneous, more thought....We have a clear rythmic base but we do not know what we are going to create. The result is a surprise'' | |
