Louis Sclavis Quintet: India

Louis Sclavis Quintet: India Louis Sclavis (clarinets), Sarah Murcia (double bass), Benjamin Moussay (piano), Olivier Laisney (trumpet), Christophe Lavergne (drums) Louis Sclavis one of the great sound narrators of European Jazz, an emblematic figure of French improvised music, presented the album India (2025), a quintet project that prolongs his incessant nomadic spirit. Almost 40 years after his masterpiece Chine (1987), the clarinettist once again offers us a journey in which jazz dialogues with traditional Asian sounds, evoking an India dreamt from the memory of past journeys. With Sarah Murcia on double bass, Benjamin Moussay on piano, Christophe Lavergne on drums and the addition of trumpeter Olivier Laisney, Sclavis finds a solid and recognisable group sound, capable of sustaining melodies, dances and improvisations supported by obstinate rhythms. A formation with which he has built a common universe made of imagination, listening and freedom. India is born from travel impressions transformed into musical material: a theatre on the docks of Calcutta, a long train crossing the countryside, a night in Kali Temple, the Ganesh festivities..... The album offers memories of a faraway place that are almost a mirage, an India that unfolds in atmospheres and textures, with a lyricism always marked by the collective strength of the quintet.