Vulfpeck
Léon Phal

There are about as many ways to introduce Vulfpeck as styles this band has explored. At first an instrumental quartet built around multi-instrumentalist Jack Stratton, it has gradually turned into a kind of modular collective through collaborations with a myriad of veteran figures from studios and the stage (drummers Michael Bland and Bernard Purdie, bassist Bootsy Collins), and revealed future stars, such as singer Antwaun Stanley and guitarist Cory Wong. Over time, Vulfpeck has attracted a dedicated fan community that is now millions strong. From their modest beginnings on YouTube in 2011 to their triumphant concert at New York’s famous Madison Square Garden in 2019 and all throughout their seven album discography that continues to grow, Vulfpeck has always remained true to their guiding beliefs: take up the torch from the bands that produced the greatest soul, rock, pop and funk albums in the 1960s and blend the power of this timeless and universal music with inimitable humour. Their concert at Jazz à Vienne — one of only two booked appearances in France in 2024 — will be one of the year’s great moments of live music.

Line-up :

• Theodore Katzman - BAND: vocals, drums, guitar
• Jack Stratton - BAND: vocals, drums, guitar
• Joseph Dart - BAND: bass
• William Goss - BAND: keys
• Cory Wong - BAND: guitar
• Antwaun Stanley - BAND: vocals
• Joseph Dosik - BAND: vocals, keys, saxaphone
• Jacob Groten - BAND: vocals, keys

Among his generation, few if any artists have experienced as dazzling an ascent as Léon Phal. In just four years of a career marked by victory at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations and Jazz à Vienne springboards in 2019, the Swiss saxophone player has become a figurehead for a cohort of artists who hold jazz in just as high esteem as they do electro — never dissolving one into the other, never partitioning their passions, always showing just how much each has to say to the other, just as long as you know how to let them dialogue. Alongside one of Europe’s most versatile and creative quintets — Zacharie Ksyk on the trumpet, Gauthier Toux at his keyboards, Rémi Bouyssière on the double bass and Arthur Allard on the drums — he has released three albums, each unveiling new facets of his music. His latest, entitled Stress Killer, is a product of maturity, an ideal balance between all his cherished styles, from John Coltrane’s immortal themes to house music rhythms and French touch bebop. On stage, Léon Phal and his quintet never forget that great concerts are those that are played for and with the audience and that each new performance is a wonderful shared experience.

Line-up :

• Léon Phal (sax)
• Zacharie Ksyk (t)
• Gauthier Toux (kbd)
• Rémy Buissière (cb)
• Arthur Allard (dms)