Double your swing
Twin brothers Francois and Louis Moutin are in sync with jazz
Reaching one of the leaders of the hot international jazz
quartet Moutin Reunion is not particularly difficult, it’s just a bit
confusing.
The group’s manager told me that the drummer, Louis,
pronounces his name the French way: Louie. Then he gave me a New York City phone number.
I called and asked for Louis, pronouncing it perfectly.
“Do you mean Francois?” said a female voice, laughing.
Moutin Reunion is fronted by identical twins Louis and
Francois Moutin and even their manager seems a bit confused. For the record,
Louis lives in Paris; Francois, the bassist,
lives in New York.
They were born three minutes apart, but as a rhythm section they are as
together as it gets. In fact, critics have called their stage communication
“telepathic.”
“When you grow up with a twin brother you play every game
together and you beat the shit out of each-other,” says Francois. “We shared so
many things together that everything became a game and music was probably the
deepest of them all.”
A favorite at the 2005 Rochester International Jazz
Festival, Moutin Reunion will be returning Friday, September 8, for a show at WaterStreetMusic Hall. Saxophonist
Rick Margitza and pianist Pierre De Bethmann round out the quartet.
The Moutin brothers,
44, grew up in the suburbs of Paris
and were immersed in jazz. Their parents, both of whom worked for fashion
magazines, were big fans of the genre.
“We had an exhaustive record collection, from the early
players, Jelly Roll Morton and Bix Beiderbecke, to John Coltrane in the 1960s,”
says Francois. Their mother played piano and a little guitar.
Those two instruments became the twins’ first; Louis on
piano, Francois on guitar. But that didn’t last long.
When they were 7 their father took them to see the blues
singer, Memphis Slim.
“Louis was drumming on the table where we were sitting,”
says Francois. Memphis Slim could have said, ‘Hey, please don’t play,’ but I
think he just had fun playing with that 7-year-old kid. At the end of his set,
he walked over to our table, shook my brother’s hand and said, ‘Hey man, you’re
a drummer.'”
By the age of 9 the twins were fans of Oscar Peterson. When
Francois discovered that his trio was coming to Paris, he asked if they could go. His father
got them first row seats.
“Of course Oscar Peterson was great, but when we saw them
play live, what Ray Brown was doing on the bass really struck me. Oscar was
leaving him a lot of space to solo.”
As teenagers and into their 20s they progressed as bassist
and drummer, but music wasn’t their only interest. The twins were no slouches
academically. Francois eventually earned a doctorate in physics. He insists
that his brother Louis, who has a masters degree in mathematics, is even more
gifted in physics.
“We did that by passion too,” say Francois. “The common
point would be intuition; jazz, physics and math all involve a lot of
intuition.”
Francois is aware that he could be making more money if he
had pursued a career in physics. He also knows he’s having a more satisfying
life because he did not.
“Each of us had to decide on his own whether he was going to
do music or physics, math or science. But I think the fact that there were two
of us helped us make the right choice, which was to do what was more risky, but
to choose what we would have regretted all of our life if we hadn’t chosen it.”
Although there have
been many exceptions, including drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach and, more
recently, bassist Dave Holland, it is not common for bassists and drummers to
lead groups.
“For us it’s very exciting,” says Francois. “It would be
easier to be sidemen, with people calling you once you are established. But you
don’t get to write your own tunes.”
Every Moutin Reunion album includes one track that is simply
a bass and drum duo. If that sounds non-melodic, you haven’t heard the Moutins.
On the Red Moon CD there is a
beautiful rendition of “Beyond the Sea.” On the latest, Something Like Now, it’s “Bird’s Medley,” a wonderful compilation
of Charlie Parker tunes.
The album’s title tune, “Something Like New,” by Louis, is a
complex composition written in a manner that recalls Dave Brubeck’s time
signature experiments of the 1960s.
“Louis is able to play two tempos at once; six bars of one
tempo equals eight bars of the other. He practiced that and thought, Maybe I
can write something with this. He found that a Joe Zawinul-like
melody fit perfectly.”
The album is also filled with wonderful solos by the other
two quartet members.
Before joining Moutin Reunion tenor saxophonist Rick
Margitza had played with Miles Davis and recorded eight albums as a leader,
three on Blue Note. He encountered Francois at a late-night gig.
“We were doing rhythm experimentation that most people were
scared of, but he brought his sax and usually played the third set with us. He
was pretty much the only one who could really handle it. When our saxophonist
quit, I went to Rick and asked him to join,” Francois says.
Pianist Pierre De Bethmann has recorded six CDs as a leader,
four of them on Blue Note. His introduction to the group also came through
musical communication.
“I was at a garden party, cooking some things on the
barbecue,” says Francois. “I started improvising a Charlie Parker thing and
this guy starts singing behind my back and we sort of jammed for a while. I
lost contact for many years, but next time I heard about him he was leading a
trio, Prysm, and recording for Blue Note. He has great energy, musical and
human. When our last pianist left Louis and I both agreed to ask him.”
Moutin Reunion is the first of a series of jazz shows at WaterStreetMusic Hall. All of the
jazz shows will have seating.
Moutin Reunion Quartet plays Friday,
September 8, 8 p.m. at WaterStreetMusic
Hall, 205
North Water Street. $20
in advance, $23 day of show ($10 discount with student ID). Tickets at
ticketmaster.com or Aaron’s Alley (no service fee). 546-3887.
This article appears in Sep 6-12, 2006.
