Daniel Humair - Strasbourg 2008

Taking a break from the Hubbard shows and returning for a moment to the topic of great drummers featured here as band leaders - check this post for more: Elvin Jones - Boston 1973.

There was a request for some more Daniel Humair, who was featured here before in a collective trio, Tryptich (with Jean-Paul Celea and François Couturier), and will be featured in another collective trio with Joachim Kühn and Miroslav Vitous.

Humair, born 1938 in Geneva, Switzerland, went to Paris early on and there quickly became part of the jazz scene, playing with many of the greats both from Europe, as well as visiting musicians. He played with Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, with Don Byas, Lucky Thompson, Roland Kirk, Kenny Dorham, Bud Powell, Oscar Pettiford, Chet Baker, Eric Dolphy, Barney Wilen, Eddy Louiss, Jean-Luc Ponty, Stéphane Grappelli, Jim Hall, Lee Konitz, Art Farmer, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Anthony Braxton, Henri Texier, Michel Portal, Dave Liebman, and many, many others.

Starting 1960, he recorded several albums with René Urtreger and Pierre Michelot, their trio was called HUM. He was a member of Martial Solal's great trio in the sixties, and in the late sixties he also was part of Phil Woods' European Rhythm Machine, and later on he was part of a great trio with Joachim Kühn (a frequent collaborator to these days) and the much missed Jean-François Jenny Clark.

In recent years, he's led various bands, among them Baby Boom (with saxophonists Matthieu Donarier and Christophe Monniot, Manu Codjia on guitar and bassist Sébastien Boisseau), Liberté Surveillée (with Ellery Eskelin on tenor, Marc Ducret on guitar and Bruno Chevillon, bass), and has performed with Bobo Stenson (in trio with Jean-Paul Celea) and Manu Codjia (in trio with François Moutin).

A series of fine releases on the now defunct Sketch label document some of these recent activities (Baby Boom, the band with Eskelin, HUM in a fine 3CD set, spanning 1960 to the late 90s, as well as another release with Marvin Stamm on trumpet, "Ear Mix").
Recent discs include "Full Contact" (with the trio featured here), "Tryptich" (see my previous post!), and "Trio Live" with Celea and Jean-Philippe Murien, as well as "Baby Boom II" (with the same line-up as on the Sketch album), "Songlines" (with the trio Codjia/Moutin/Humair), "Air Libre" (with Muvien, Celea and Louis Sclavis). You can find all of these recent releases and some more on abeillemusique.com

Besides being an excellent jazz drummer, Humair has also pursued a career as painter, with over 150 exhibitions, starting in 1965.

In October of the past year, the fine French "Jazz Magazine" did a dossier on Humair, you can check out some of it via Humair's website.

Photo credits: above: Karlheinz Klüter (website), below: Yves Dorrison



Daniel Humair Trio
Festival Jazzdor
Strasbourg (France), Maillon-Wacken
November 7, 2008

Tony Malaby - tenor sax
Joachim Kühn - piano
Daniel Humair - drums

1. Jim Dine (Humair) 21:01
2. Full Contact (Humair) 9:37
3. Ghislène (Humair-Kühn) 19:41
4. Salinas (Kühn) 13:17

TT: 63:37

Sound: A
Lineage: FM > WAV (Wavelab) > FLAC (frontend level 8)
Source: France Musique, "Jazz sur le Vif" / 2008-12-02
Introduction by Xavier Prévost (deleted!)
Seeder: Cosmikd

Additional lineage: FLAC > WAV > Cool Edit Pro > FLAC (8,asb,verify)

:: ubu edits ::
deleted fm announcements at end of #1-3
added fade-outs at end of #1,2,4
added fade-ins at beginning of #1,3
a splice remains audible at 19:28 of #3