Etienne JEANNE -debut album- Lost&Found (2021) "when Django meets Charlie"

EtienneJEANNE · May 2021

Hi guys, I am new to the website

I am a French gypsy guitar player living in Shanghai for the past 15 years.

I have literally brought gypsy jazz in China, alongside with American guitarist Doug Martin.

Today, I wanted to share with you the release of my debut album "Lost&Found", entirely produced by myself at my place (composed, recorded, mixed and mastered). I have also created my own label to distribute it (Hot Wheels Records), with more original music to come.

This album is a mix of gypsy jazz and bebop, "when Django meets Charlie", and is available on all platforms - or check my website at https://etiennejeanne.com

For the Djangobooks community, here's a link for a free download of the album (mp3, valid until May 20th) : https://we.tl/t-2yChE06YT7

If you missed the free download, the album is available everywhere. Here's a Spotify link for a track with the great Ludovic BEIER on accordion : https://open.spotify.com/track/5O2Ku4XVev9ePci9YKuRjM?si=a91820d06b2e4b8a

And here's the Spotify link with China's amazing jazz violin player Pengfei (彭飞): https://open.spotify.com/track/1RQQ9h5630TZJMcRHBYoVf?si=ceaa5a1115164347

I believe that this type of gypsy jazz is fresh, the mix being totally different than what's on the market nowadays.

Please, leave your comments if you liked it, and also if you didn't like it :p

Relax, and enjoy~

Etienne

Buco · May 2021

Listened to it a couple of times. Extremely well done. Think I'm gonna queue it up one more time as I'm writing this...

EtienneJEANNE · May 2021

Big thanks for your comment Buco, and thanks for the download :)))

I will produce more recordings this year, other artists as well, I'll let you know :)))

billyshakes · May 2021

I have literally brought gypsy jazz in China, alongside with American guitarist Doug Martin.

Here's a cause I can get behind! Really nice playing. Love Ludovic Beier. Love the album cover. Cool mix of guests and song choices. Thank you for your generosity.

Buco · May 2021

I listened on Spotify. Thank you for putting it out there. Very cool cover art, as Bill pointed too.

EtienneJEANNE · May 2021

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/106533#Comment_106533

My wife did the art work, big up to her, and thanks for pointing it !

Buco · May 2021

Could you tell us a bit about how you recorded guitars? Which mics, mic placement, preamp etc... We discuss that here occasionally and your recording sounds great: just enough brightness, open and natural. There's a moment somewhere on the album where guitar and bass are riffing on the same note, that sounds so good, heavy.

The album sounds great, I've listened to it a lot more. Really good compositions with nice and interesting harmonic twists. I'm impressed that on the track with Beier, your soloing hangs right in there with him. Which, funnily enough, on this forum virtuosic playing isn't always looked at favorably. But your soloing carries nice melodic ideas which ear can follow even when you play a lot of notes.

billyshakes · May 2021

But your soloing carries nice melodic ideas which ear can follow even when you play a lot of notes.

Funny you mention this. In light of recent discussions on the forum here, and other outside practice material I'm reviewing, I have been thinking about some of these topics such as giving space or "overplaying." I was listening this weekend and noticed this exact thing on that song that you noticed, Buco. A lot of notes, yes, but I was still able to easily (and pleasantly) follow along musically to the idea. +1 👍️

billyshakes · May 2021

Btw, I spotted the nice subtle Nuits de St Germain de Pres quote in the start of Ludovic's first solo. Well done.

EtienneJEANNE · May 2021

Thanks for all the great feed backs guys, I really appreciate, so here is what I did to record the guitars.

Since I've recorded the guitars in my living room, literally, and that the streets can be very noisy sometimes, I had to place the mic very close to the guitar hole (10cm) with a low signal to avoid parasite noises, and work a lot on the reverbs combination in order to restitute a "studio recording" feeling, which is basically a subtle mix of an office, a plate, and a hall (short, medium, long), to recreate the geometry of a room, but without that reverb to be heard too much, and that for every instruments. I honestly think that sound guys have abused way too much of the reverb in tons of classic gypsy jazz recordings. At least that's my opinion, so I wanted to avoid it on my album.

Mic is a basic cardioid condenser Sure KSM32, connected to an ART tube preamp TP II, and plugged into a Focusrite Scarlett soundcard. Basic, simple, though really efficient.

I have used iZotop Ozone 9 as a plug-in for the sound treatment and the mastering, and I highly recommend it if you can't afford expensive hardware. Useless to say I have followed hours of tutorials to learn how to use it correctly and be able to mix and master by myself.

I have used Ableton Live 10 as a DAW. I have been using Live for the past 12 years, and I know almost every each functionality of it, which makes my work fast and efficient while recording.