Anne Paceo

Leader et compositrice fertile, Anne Paceo a su inventer un style singulier et identifiable dès les premières mesures. En témoignent ses 3 Victoires de la musique, « Artiste jazz de l’année » en 2019, « Artiste jazz de l’année » en 2016, « Révélation jazz » en 2011, et sa discographie prolixe qui l’ont emmenée jouer dans 45 pays sur les 5 continents. Avec sept albums et deux EP à son actif Anne Paceo se joue des codes et des styles, mettant un point d’honneur à briser les frontières et rechercher des alchimies très particulières entre les musiciens qui composent ses groupes. Le 25 mars prochain elle publiera son 7e album intitulé S.H.A.M.A.N.E.S

Indeed Anne Paceo has travelled our planet extensively playing in 41 countries and five continents. A musician since childhood, she graduated from the percussion department in the Paris Conservatoire National de Musique She has accompanied many renowned jazz artists (Rhoda Scott, Henri Texier, Raphaël Imbert, Archie Shepp among others).

Anne Paceo founded in 2005 the Triphase trio with which she released two albums. Then, five years later, with a new group called Yokai she released her record of the same name. Recognition would not be long to come: in 2011 she was crowned “Revelation of the Year” at the Victoire de la Musique de Jazz annual contest, and in 2016 was awarded the title of “Jazz Artist of the Year”. Meanwhile she continued feeding her eclectic taste by collaborating with many other artists from Mélissa Laveaux to Jeanne Added. “I have learned a lot by playing with other bands. It is especially interesting to witness how the band leader works, how their energy drives the group, how much creative space they give the musicians and how they manage to draw the best out of their musicians.”
With the composite album Circles released in 2016, in which she explores at once pop, jazz and hip hop, followed by the live album Fables of Shwedagon (2018), recorded with musicians from Burma, a signature talent for melody and musical poetry clearly emerges. Qualities which are confirmed even transcended today with Bright Shadows which follows suite from Circles.

Once again no boundaries, they are too restrictive. Pop, folk, jazz, electro have a voice, they mingle and are modulated at wish as imagined and orchestrated by Anne Paceo. “Voice and percussion are primal and take us back to the origins”, she explains. “According to Mongol legends they created the world.”

Associating three voices with my drums was a way of returning to the source, the beginning.” The drummer now acknowledges her own voice, blending it with those of Ann Shirley and Florent Mateo… The latter, along with Sandra Nkake, Marion Rampal and Diana Trujillo have supported Anne’s writing as she delved deep within to express herself.

The passing of time with “Tomorrow”, the impact of the world on one’s inner soul with “Bright Shadows”, an ode to metamorphosis with “The Shell”, a reflection on memories and love with “Hope is a Swan”— a title written at the fifteenth century artist residency center the Moulin d’André where she followed in the footsteps of Truffaut, Perec, Louis Malle and Ionesco. In addition to existential environments, social topics are not forgotten. From Haiti to Paris, immigration issues also inspired “Stranger” while “Nehanda” for which Anne chose to invent “an imagined, incantatory language” pays homage to the heroic battles lead by the female Zimbabwean warrior Nehanda Nyakasikana.
Instrumentally speaking her faithful companions are as always: Tony Paeleman, Christophe Panzani and Pierre Perchaud. Their references are extensive from James Blake to Fauré requiems, from West African groove to the multi-layered synthesizers of Boards of Canada, from John Coltrane to Steve Reich’s polyrhythmic work, including “the historical strength of Alan Lomax’s 1930 recordings in American prisons.” This album is certainly an audacious combination of musical voices in which improvisation and a chiseled score harmonize, in which high standard Pop transports the auditor offering a journey into as many human adventures. Finally “Contemplation” carries us into Anne Paceo’s intimate world as the rhythms and the melodies intertwine to provide the perfect conclusion to the invitation to travel that is "Bright Shadows".