The Sound and Me #17 with Denis Guivarc'h

Born into jazz

I was born into jazz, I had no choice to listen to anything but jazz all my life, all my childhood. And as a result, with references to incredible saxophonists: Cannonball, Coltrane, Parker and others. And the trigger, that was an English saxophonist that some people know well, by the name of Peter King. I didn't go to many concerts in Brittany and Peter King used to come to play in Brittany. And from seeing him, precisely, by being close to this saxophonist, that was the trigger. I said to myself: this is what I have to do. And strangely enough, I don't play at all like Peter King and I don't have the same sound as Peter King. And I'm not looking to have the same sound as Peter King. Strangely enough, I rather went towards our friend Steve Coleman who is doing another thing, even though somewhere, it's people who come from... Perhaps at some point. We all come from Charlie Parker.
 

My own sound

We all seek at some point to have our own personality, our own sound, to be identifiable. And I think I haven't necessarily been successful in my life, but I think I've done that, that is, I have my own sound, people either like it or they don't, but at least one knows when I'm playing and that's exactly what I liked about Peter King, what I liked about Steve Coleman and others, that you really recognise them. They really have something going for them, after that, you either join or you don't.

A metal mouthpiece with a plastic reed

In fact, my sound is a bit linked to my material, that's the awful thing. It comes as a single package, of course, but the fact of playing a metal mouthpiece with a plastic reed, it's not a very common thing, it goes immediately into a very nasal sound. There, I found I think, with this material, and now the 'Supreme' which works well, I'm very happy with it, I've found something that works. I can't lose my mouthpiece because if I lose my mouthpiece, I don't think I'll sound the same at all. Unfortunately, it's often said that it is not the material that makes the person but it does play a role. And yet, I'm advocating completely the opposite. I always say that the material, who cares really, the important thing, is the sound of the person. And somehow it's true, we play what we are at that time, even if we try... We try to copy our peers, we seek... Some are seeking, some areseeking a little less and have more desire to really follow the path of the great ones, let's say, from our references…

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