I was not familiar with the music of French trumpeter Éric Le Lann before this book arrived but it came with a concurrently released CD featuring him in a concert performance with Martial Solal from 1999. No one else is involved and the music is a far cry from Armstrong and Hines, or Peterson’s much later duets with Gillespie, Eldridge and others, but it shows Le Lann as a musician of character and his book reveals a writer of character as well. Born in Brittany in 1957 he moved to Paris 20 years later to begin a career as a jazz musician which continues to this day.
The book begins with a dramatic car crash when he was 17 and enforced weeks of recovery which allowed him to contemplate his future. Three years later he was in Paris, determined to establish himself in the crowded Paris jazz scene, but before reporting his early experiences there he gives a sample of future contacts with famous musicians through a short anecdote involving Chet Baker, which, in four pages, touches on both music and drugs. Chet reappears here and there in the book and Le Lann’s relationship with him was a close one (but centred on music rather than drugs). Later on he’s encouraged by Clark Terry, becomes close to Archie Shepp, records in New York and has as much positive contact with American musicians as any European jazz musician might hope for. But inevitably much of his music is played with Frenchmen and a particular rapport is developed with Solal, whose big band dates invariably involved his friend Le Lann.
I hesitate to call the style of the book “stream of consciousness” but it’s brought to life by use of the present tense and stimulating swerves of subject and it captured my attention enough for me to finish it in one sitting. The depiction of the gradual progress, from playing for nothing at jam sessions to gaining respect and regular work, benefits from a conversational style and what seems to be an excellent memory. The book ends with a startling chapter involving his father’s suicide, his stepmother’s concealment of the will and his eventual receipt of the instrument his trumpet-playing father had bequeathed to him. Le Lann writes in a very approachable style, using a vocabulary which is not challenging, and to anyone able to read this book I recommend it very highly for its insights into the process of becoming a successful jazz musician.
Scorpion Ascendant Belon, by Éric Le Lann. Frémeaux Et Associés, 151pp, discography 5pp. ISBN 978-2-38283-320-9
