“This is the moment when you really feel in your place, invincible”: it is on stage that Delgres, a group with a unique Creole blues-rock, formed in France and known as far as Louisiana, can be enjoyed.
The telluric trio will be seen in concert on Sunday as part of the Jazz à La Villette festival, at the gates of Paris. A musical event broader than its simple “jazz” name, since last year, for example, the heralds of an erudite American hip hop, De La Soul, performed there.
America is a bit of a topic with Delgres, who released his third album, “Promis le ciel”, this year.
The Louisiana tours have left their mark. When you click on the home page of The Broadside, an outdoor concert venue in New Orleans, you see a photo of the French trio on stage.
One particular instrument explains, among other things, the group’s success: next to a guitar and drums, there is a sousaphone, or sousaphone, an instrument from the brass family wrapped like a boa around its player.
“Rafgee (the stage name of one of Delgres’ musicians) plays parts usually played by a bassist on a sousaphone, an instrument commonly found in New Orleans brass bands,” NPR reported a few years ago.
– “Frustrated bassist” –
This is confirmed to AFP by the person concerned, who describes himself as a “frustrated bassist”. “With this tuba, in my head, I am a bassist. Not at all a tuba player. I wanted to broaden my spectrum, to be a rock, funk, folk bassist, all of that on stage. And Delgres was the first time I was able to do that,” he explains.
“When Pascal called me to form a group singing rock in Creole, I didn’t really know where I was going. I went for it and, indeed, from the beginning, it worked straight away. In fact, it was like an obvious choice.”
Pascal Danaë, guitarist and singer, is the soul of the group. The Creole he sings is that of his family from Guadeloupe. Under his eternal Black Panther-style beret, the lyricist writes down lyrics that speak of the injustices and revolts of today or yesterday.
Louis Delgrès, who gives his name to the group (but written without an accent), is this Martinican, an infantry colonel in the French army, who rebelled against the Napoleonic troops who came to reestablish slavery in Guadeloupe. He blew himself up — with his men, in 1802 — to avoid surrendering.
The powder still speaks, via sound explosions, during the shows of this group born in 2016.
– “Pure trick” –
An alchemy that Pascal Danaë still cannot explain. “I had spent months giving birth to these few songs, with this guitar tuned in this way, this Creole that I assumed. I was reconnecting with childhood memories, roots”, the artist born in the Paris region remembers for AFP.
“It was all there. It was like a kind of pure thing. And, all of a sudden, to be able to share it with the group and for it to take on this dimension, for it to go beyond what I myself had imagined, it was crazy.” He is the one who evokes this feeling of invincibility on stage that envelops them.
“Delgres’ blues-rock is accompanied by lyrics sung in Creole, carrying a force of resistance, of liberation, of the power to get rid of one’s troubles thanks to music,” wrote the Broadside venue in New Orleans on its social networks when it received them.
The concert at Jazz à La Villette promises to be a success. “It’s always a big step in a tour, a concert in Paris or in the Paris region. Here, we arrive very comfortable musically, we were able to practice our show with many concerts before, we have everything at our fingertips,” drummer Baptiste Brondy describes to AFP.
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