Ka Suite – Jean-Christophe Maillard, 2000

He started out working with Tanya St-Val, Patrick Saint-Eloi, Bago and Jocelyne Béroard. In the second half of the 90s, Jean-Christophe Maillard recorded for Mario Canonge, Michel Fugain and Daniel Mille, and was a member of the Bisso Na Bisso collective. In 2000, his first album, Ka Suite, plunged naturally into the Guadeloupean musical tradition, for guitar and ka. He worked with Etienne Mbappé and entrusted the skins to two masters, Klod Kiavué and Philippe Makaïa. A very acoustic opus, awarded 4 stars by JazzMan at the time, and which would not have been out of place in the ECM label’s discography, in my humble opinion. Later, Jean-Christophe mixed his rock influences with ka for his Grand Bâton project (Mbutu, that’s him), then toured with Lisa Fischer. We’ve heard him with Sixun, and over the last few years he’s also accompanied Argentinian singer Sofia Rei. Last year, confinement inspired him to write a beautiful, introspective Saz Blues, which is available exclusively online.