Jacques Thollot – Watch Devil Go (1975, LP, France)

Side A
A1. Kanephoros
A2. Up-Downs
A3. Watch Devil Go
A4. In Extenso
A5. Go Mind
A6A. Trypyique Pour La Foire Des Ténèbres (Ray Bradburry) - Et Les Années De Ta Vie Seront Multipliées
A6B. TPLFDT - Comme Un Fou Lié Pour Le Chatiment Jusqu'A Ce Qu'Une Flêche Lui Perce Le Foie
A6C. TPLFDT - Comme Un Oiseau Se Précipite Vers La Mer Sans Se Douter Qu'Il Y A Pour Lui De Sa Vie
Side B
B1. Le Ciel Manque De Généalogie
B2. Kamikaze's Nightmare
B3. Entre Java Et Lombok
B4. Eddy G. Always Present
B5. Before In
B6. Eleven
B7. La Dynastie Des Wittelsbach
B8. 1883-1945, Heavens
B9. Au Stylo Feutre, Un Paysage
B10. Canéphore

Musicians:

Acoustic Bass – Jean-François Jenny-Clark

Drums, Piano, Synthesizer – Jacques Thollot

Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Synthesizer – François Jeanneau

French drummer Jacques Thollot started playing with jazz bands at an early age towards the end of the 1950's, being recognized as a prodigy child. One can find clips of him from 1958 playing the drums at the age of 13 in a night club with a jazz band (Barney Wilen Trio). He would pass his teenage years in this surrounding developing his musical vision which would be much wider and more experimental than what he used to play during that time.

His first release, which is also the most striking one, released on the Futura Records in 1971, is called "Quand Le Son Devient Aigu, Jeter La Giraffe A La Mer"; it is a splendid example of spacey-like, fragile and imaginative compositional style fusing jazz, electronic experiments, psychedelic elements and rock together, culminating in a blissful listening experience and it has earned Thollot the place in the NWW list.avant

Thollot went on to release 4 more albums, "Watch The Devil Go" (1975), Résurgence (1977), Cinq Hops (1978) and most recently Tenga Niña (1996). Whereas the first album is the one of most interest to those looking for the avant-prog/experimental side of his, the others are more jazz-oriented and include vocals. Of these the most notable and recommended is Cinq Hops with its more structured and direct approach (compared to Quand Le Son.) and contains and female-vocals fronting in a chant-like style with the rest of the band providing an ethereal atmosphere, making this a very pleasant album to listen to with a touch of Magma-like zeuhl elements and style.

Jacques Thollot ‎– Cinq Hops (1978, CD, France)

Man, I must be getting old. All these things from 25-30-35 years ago that I remember and own or owned are now being touted as lost classics. "Lost?, I've owned that for...uh...years...uh...never mind..." Anyway, this is a very good French jazz/rock/zeuhl album from 1978 that came out on the short-lived Free Bird label. Thollot is a drummer who played with some noted free and avant jazz players in the 60s and 70s, such as Sonny Sharrock, Sam Rivers, Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy, Jac Berrocal and many others. This title however is completely different. The record label hype, all in French that I can read badly suggests that it's meeting of a trilogy of styles: the jazz/rock universe, such as Weather Report, French classical music as typified by Poulenc and Debussy and lastly rock in opposition sounds of Art Bears and John Greaves. I really don't hear rock in opposition at all, but eliminate them and throw in Zeuhl via Zao, Yochk'o Seffer, Alain Eckert Quartet (will THAT album ever be reissued on CD?) and I'd agree pretty strongly with their take on this. The lineup is Elise Ross-vocals, Francois Jeanneau-soprano sax & flute, Michel Grailler-piano, Yamaha electronic piano, Francois Couturier-keyboards, Jean Paul Celea-double bass and Jacques Thollot on drums, percussion and keyboards. Elise sings in a rather classical style and these are obviously jazz and jazz/rock players but it's pretty strongly zeuhl, baby. Very nice and great to see this available again! (Wayside) Great crazy prog!!!! here