Born: April 30, 1969 Primary Instrument: Guitar, electric
Michel Delville was born in Liege, Belgium, in 1969. He has been performing and composing alternative music since the mid-1980s. His most recent projects include the internationally acclaimed Nu-Rock-Jazz quintet The Wrong Object (wrongobject.com), Belgian-Swiss punk-jazz combo Trank Zappa Grappa in Varese (Myspace profile), Belgo-Dutch combo The Moving Tones (www.myspace.com/themovingtones), Alex Maguire Sextet (www.moonjune.com), Stanley Jason Zappa's New Texture Pan Tonal Fellowship, and Ed Mann & Friends . douBt, his most recent project, is a power trio featuring Alex Maguire (Elton Dean, Michael Moore, Hatfield and the North, ...) and Tony Bianco (Dave Liebman, Paul Dunmall, Alexander Von Schlippenbach, Reggie Workman, ...). douBt released their first album for Moonjune Records in 2010. The record features guest performances by Canterbury legend Richard Sinclair on bass and vocals.
In 2010 Delville was invited to join Comicoperando, a tribute to the music of Robert Wyatt whose line-up includes Dagmar Krause, Richard Sinclair, Annie Whitehead, Gilad Atzmon, Alex Maguire, Chris Cutler, John Edwards and Cristiano Calcagnile. In the Spring of that same year, Delville officially joined the international collective 48 Cameras.
Delville has played and recorded with Elton Dean, Annie Whitehead, Harry Beckett, Ed Mann, Alex Maguire, Tony Bianco, Richard Sinclair, Benoît Moerlen, Geoff Leigh, Markus Stauss, Robin Verheyen, Frank van der Kooij, Guy Segers, Bart Maris, Jaap Blonk, Catherine Smet, Ivo Sans, Fred Delplancq, Jean-Paul Estievenart, Etienne Plumer, Damien Campion, Steven Delannoye, Frank Wuyts, Dirk Wachtelaere, Damien Polard, Laurent Delchambre, Sam Gertsmans, Antoine Guenet, Biagio Francia, Marc Mangen, Domenico Solazzo's PaNoPTICon, Domgue, Chris Garcia, Chris Stassinopoulos, Stanley Jason Zappa, Andrew Norris, Frank Goos, Marco Maurizi, and other jazz and prog-rock musicians.
Persistent rumors are circulating that a future album for Moonjune Records will be guitar-based, electronically inclined, and released under the name of BLAST 3.
Awards:
Delville was voted one of the 10 best electric guitarists of the year 2010 by Arnaldo DeSouteiro's Annual Jazz Station Poll, which also voted douBt 3rd best Instrumental Group.http://www.wrongobject.com/MD/press.html
Duncan Heining /JAZZWISE: “Guitarist Delville is quite stunning whether soloing or filling out the spaces between ... Suppose you've a friend, who thinks jazz-rock an aberration and fusion noodling its inevitable nadir. Here's what you do. Strap them to a chair, put this on at full volume and leave them a few hours. If by then they still don't get it, find another friend.”
John Ephland /DOWNBEAT: “Covering Rypdal's 'Over Birkerot' Michel Delville helps the song veer off from being an out-and-out rocker akin to the original and more a search for the heart of 'Birkerot', circa 2010, with multi-layered rhythmic pulses, unwieldy guitar lines with reverb that send the music airborne.”
Vincenzo Giorgo /MUSICA JAZZ: “Escono quasi in contemporanea due registrazioni dal vivo della band di Michel Delville, vulcanico chitarrista belga fortemente attrato da Allan Holdsworth, Terje Rypdal, Robert Fripp e Frank Zappa oltre che (come evidenziano qui gli ospiti) dal jazz britannico.”
ZNR: “Michel Delville's guitar playing seems influenced more by the atmospheric explorations of players like Bill Frisell, David Torn and, certainly, Robert Fripp but his technical ability is never in question. There are hints of Zappa & Holdsworth in his sound, too. However the approach is all his own and never seems derivative. Like Frisell & Torn, Delville can play all around an idea and look at it from many different angles.”
Ben Watson /HIFINEWS: “Michel Delville, leader and guitarist of The Wrong Object from Liege, Belgium, is writing tunes which emulate Zappa's taste for succinct idiosyncrasy and melodic lilt.... in a modern music scene that regularly trundles out all the paraphernalia of intelligence (laptops, bald heads, performers; desk-tops like mad electronic laboratories), this is the real thing.”
Maurizio Comandini /ALL ABOUT JAZZ Italy: “La scrittura di Michel Delville, vero leader del gruppo, e assolutamente in grado di fornire elementi di contiguita molto evidenti con quella di Zappa e quindi il progetto assume una unitarieta molto evidente, ben messa in luce dalla coesione che il palco sa fornire. L'album e stato infatti registrato dal vivo e il concerto e davvero godibile e riuscito, con ampio spazio riservato ai solisti, ma senza mai abbandonare il compito auto-assegnato di costruire un coerente tessuto dalle trame zappiane che non si vergogna di abbracciare anche influssi provenienti dal rock progressivo inglese e dal jazz-rock meticcio che ha preso piede a partire da Canterbury, da Robert Wyatt e Ian Carr e da altri spiriti liberi europei.”
Doubt (Alex Maguire/Michel Delville/Tony Bianco), Never Pet a Burning Dog
Moonjune
2010
The Wrong Object feat Stanley Jason Zappa, Live at Zappanale
Fazzul
2010
The Wrong Object, Stories from the Shed
Moonjune
2008
Alex Maguire Sextet, Brewed in Belgium
Moonjune
2008
TZGIV, More Light
Fazzul
2007
The Wrong Object feat. Harry Beckett and Annie Whitehead, Platform One
Voiceprint/Jazzprint
2007
Elton Dean & The Wrong Object, The Unbelievable Truth
Moonjune
2006 Forthcoming
Machine Mass Trio (Tony Bianco, Michel Delville, Jordi Grognard), A Knot of Dreamers
Moonjune
2011
48Cameras, So like my Father in our Fathers' Absence
Interzone
2011
Disclaimer: All About Jazz is not responsible for the accuracy of the discographical data at the website(s) provided. If a link is no longer valid, please contact discography@allaboutjazz.com. Thank you.
