Roger Guérin - Paris Meetings

At the end of the 1940s, young French jazz musicians started flocking towards the two styles of modern jazz — bebop and cool. Paris was the capital of European jazz, and the talent of the local musicians playing in Parisian clubs was often comparable to that of their American colleagues. In that league, we found mostly French and some Belgian names, such as Bobby Jaspar, Martial Solal, Pierre Michelot, Maurice Vander, Jean-Louis Viale, Benoit Quersin, René Thomas, Barney Wilen, René Urtreger, and several others.

This album is dedicated to one of them in particular: trumpeter Roger Guérin (1926-2010). Despite having very few recordings under his name and spending most of his career as a sideman, Guérin was never underappreciated by jazz fans and critics: after all, he was chosen as the best French jazz trumpeter ten years in a row (1955-65) by the "Jazz-Hot" readers' and critics' poll. In these sessions we find him alongside great American jazzmen like James Moody, Jimmy Raney, Benny Golson and Bobby Timmons, but also in the company of his French comrades, giving his best in every performance.

He was involved in many of the projects that pushed the evolution of modern jazz in France. An arranger of the stature of Billy Byers, who worked in Paris for a while in 1956, described him like this: "There are some very good musicians in France: Roger Guérin is a great jazzman".

*Jordi Pujol* 

Roger Guérin

Le Formidable Roger Guérin

Paris Meetings

Best known for his stint with Quincy Jones' Big Band, Roger Guérin had a formidable career in Paris, being first call to sit in with the likes of Don Byas, Django Reinhardt and James Moody. This collection of sessions from the 50s has him co-leading a hard bop team with Benny Golson, leading his own quartet along with Christian Grros, Pierre Michelot and Martial Solal and fitting in as a sideman for guitarist Jimmy Raney or saxist James Moody.

The sessions with Moody have the Parker disciple  bouncing to "Deep Purple" and swooning on "More Than You Know", and with Raney at the helm the team gets more lithe and open sounding with Guerin and Raney doing winders with "Too Marvelous For Words" and luminescent on "What’s New". Golson's band sounds a lot like an Art Blakey session with Bobby Timmons at the piano, and the quintet does material from the drummer's songbook with muscular reads of "Blues March", "I Remember Clifford" and a hot "Moanin'". Guerin mixes the lyricism of Miles Davis with the gentleness of Chet Baker. You’re gonna like this cat! *George W. Harris*

1 - Deep Purple

(Peter De Rose)

2 - Bootsie

(James Moody)

3 - More Than You Know

(Youmans, Rose, Eliscu)

4 - Too Marvelous For Words

(Whiting, Mercer)

5 - Night And Day

(Cole Porter)

6 - Dinah

(Akst, Lewis, Young)

7 - What's New

(Haggart, Burke)

8 - Night In Tunisia

(Gillespie, Pappareli)

9 - Sweet Feeling

(Pierre Michelot)

10 - Ça Tourne

(Roger Guérin)

11 - Buggy And Soul

(Christian Chevallier)

12 - Vline

(Christian Chevallier)

13 - Chet

(Pierre Michelot)

14 - Mythe

(Pierre Michelot)

15 - Blues March

(Benny Golson)

16 - I Remember Clifford

(Benny Golson)

17 - Stablemates

(Benny Golson)

18 - Moanin'

(Bobby Timmons)

19 - Not Serious

(Roger Guérin)

#1 to #3:

originally issued as part of the album James Moody Quintet (Vogue LD 036)

Roger Guérin (trumpet), James Moody (alto sax), Raymond Fol (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Pierre Lemarchand (drums).

Recorded in Paris, July 27, 1951.

#4 to #7:

originally issued as part of the album Jimmy Raney Visits Paris (Dawn DLP-1120)

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Jimmy Raney (guitar), Maurice Vander (piano), Jean-Marie Ingrand (bass), Jean-Louis Viale (drums).

Recorded in Paris, February 10, 1954.

#8 to #10:

from the álbum Roger Guérin Quartet (Versailles 90 S 128)

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Martial Solal (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Christian Garros (drums), Dave Rivera (conga [#8, #10]).

Recorded in Paris, July 1956.

#11 to #14:

from the album Christian Chevallier Jazz Quartet (Columbia ESDF 1139)

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Christian Chevallier (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Christian Garros (drums).

Recorded in Paris, November 13, 1956.

#15 to #19:

from the album Roger Guérin-Benny Golson with Bobby Timmons (Columbia FP 1117)

#15 to #18:

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Benny Golson (tenor sax), Bobby Timmons (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Christian Garros (drums).

Recorded in Paris, December 12, 1958.

#19:

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Michel Hausser (vibes), Martial Solal (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Christian Garros (drums).

Recorded in Paris, December 18, 1958.