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Roman Labaye
Born into an artistic family, Romain rapidly showed signs of an interest in music and naturally focused his attention on the drums, which he started playing at age 2.
At around 5, he went to a "music introduction" class but found himself more interested in trying every instruments in the room rather than listen to what the teacher said.
At 9, he entered the drums & percussions class with French percussionist Jean-Marc Quillet, who gave him many advice to improve his playing and the ear but never really taught him how to play the drums, preferring to stimulate him and making him discover improvisation. He also introduced him to jazz, and offered him to join his jazz workshop. It definitely had a big impact on his musical upbringing.
At 11, Romain started to play with some jazz musicians in Normandy such as saxophonist Laurent Dehors or pianists Pierre Gaudin & Joël Drouin.
At age 14, he experience his first major musical shock. Weather Report. Having not heard anything like this before, it became the reason why he wanted to play bass, completely mesmerized by Jaco Pastorius.
He never took a lesson, but spent countless hours listening, analyzing and transcribing everything he could.
Of course, Jaco Pastorius isn't the only bass player who influenced him.
Paul McCartney, Linley Marthe, Michel Alibo, Etienne Mbappé, Alphonso Johnson, Marcus Miller, Sting, Neil Jason, Stanley Clarke, and Paul Jackson also influenced his style and contributed to his evolution and his learning of the instrument.
Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, The Brecker Brothers, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, Chick Corea, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Police and Michael Jackson are also an important part of his influences.
Between age 19 and 23, he attended Rémi Biet's jazz classes at his hometown conservatory and in the meantime, played with various musicians in Normandy, both as a drummer and bass player.
In 2009, he founded the band TOTEM with some other friends of the conservatory.
In September 2011, he moved to Paris to enter the renowned Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, and he attended classes from Riccardo Del Fra, Glenn Ferris, Hervé Sellin, Jeff Ballard, Scott Colley, Danilo Perez, André Ceccarelli…
In the meantime, he would spend most of his nights at Le Baiser Salé Jazz Club, where he would meet and jam with some of the great names of the Parisian Jazz Scene such as Alain Debiossat, saxophonist of the band SIXUN, who will give him his first important gig.
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Bass Anyhology, Fontanelle, Tunnels and Dapp Theory
by Len Davis
Music from Bass Anthology , featuring Roman Labaye, Fontanelle, Tunnels, Dapp Theory and Steve Coleman.Playlist Roman Labaye All Right Then" from Bass Anthology (Plug and Play) 00:00 Fontanelle Watermelon Hands" from Vitamin F (Southern Lord) 06:10 Attention Deficit Dubya" from Idiot King (Magna Carta) 12:14 Tunnels Szygy Incident" from Progressivity (Bucky Ball) 18:20 Christos Tambouratzis Cell" from Cell (Self Produced) 24:24 Dapp Theory In The Moment" from Y'all Just Don't Know (Concord) 30:31 Steve Coleman Drop Kick" from ...
read moreGergo Borlai: The Missing Song
by Jim Worsley
The Missing Song has been heralded as a tribute to Gergo Borlai's nine most influential drummers still alive and performing today. This is much more than just listing them and perhaps covering one of their songs. Borlai composed eight of the nine new songs on this album. He plays them all in the manner, or mindset, of each drummer. The thought process, and level of preparation was meticulous for every drummer and every song. The drum kit, cymbals, sticks, pedals, ...
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson
Gary
From: The Missing SongBy Roman Labaye