Meddy Gerville via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other...
- Steps from Meddy Gerville:
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
'mātriks / "source" / from "mater", Latin for "mother". We're real mothers for ya!
I'LL TAKE YOU THERE! ▶
- Steps forward by: The Matrix via ↴
Who I Am & Where I Live
- Name: Meddy Gerville
- City: Saint-Denis
- Country: Réunion
My Life & Work
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Bio:
Born in 1974 in St-Pierre on Réunion Island, Meddy Gerville recorded his first album in 1997 called “Réunion Island” which included some prestigious artists from Paris: Louis Winsberg, Nicolas Folmer, Philippe Sellam and various local Réunionese musicians.
In 2000 Meddy won the Pian’Austral Award for the best pianist in the Indian Ocean (with the acclaimed Alain Jean-Marie as one of the judges). Following that, Meddy released his second album “Jazz’Oya” with guest musicians from the Paris and Réunion: Olivier Louvel (The Barbès National Orchestra), Stéphane Guillaume, (Didier Lockwood and Stéphane Huchard, The National Orchestra of Jazz), Linley Marthe (Joe Zawinul).
In 2003 Meddy released his third album titled “Sobat’ ek Lamour” (Fight with Love “Not with War”), with artists that he previously worked with: Nicolas Folmer, Stéphane Guillaume, Daniel Zimmermann, Olivier Louvel, Louis Winsberg as well as Fabrice Legros.
2006 was a major turning point for this Réunionese pianist. Simultaneously working on two albums; the first was “Jazz Amwin” (Tease Me with Jazz), a fusion of Jazz and Maloya which included collaborations from bassist Dominique Di-Piazza, drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and guitarist Jean-Marie Ecay. The second focused on a popular local genre of Sega/Maloya, titled “Ti pa ti pa n’alé” (Step by Step we are Going to Save Our Culture) with guest artist Danyèl Waro and various Réunionese musicians from local bands. Both albums were also released simultaneously.
Between 2006 and 2008, Meddy increased his collaborations by working with Pierre Bertrand’s Paris Jazz Big Band, Marc Berthoumieux’s and Nicolas Folmer. He also had the opportunity to perform on stage with the American bassist Matthew Garrison.
Meddy’s sixth album was released in May 2008, titled “Fo kronm la vi” (Enjoy Life) which featured a mix of Maloya Jazz. The highlight of this album was the inclusion of Michel Alibo an expert and mind blowing bassist.
In 2010, Meddy performed on the mythical Parisian stage of the Olympia during the “Carib’in Jazz Festival 2010”. He returned to the Olympia in 2013, sharing the marquee with another Réunion star, Dominique Barret. Meddy was then welcomed to Shanghai and Beijing for the first time in 2010, returning in 2012 to perform at various festivals and other music venues throughout China.
In 2011, Meddy released his seventh album titled “7ème Ciel” (7th Heaven). Which was highly requested and ran on all local radio stations, including the music video being played on all local music television stations. He was also presented with the “Voices of the Indian Ocean” Award in July 2011. He then releases a second single titled “Mon Abri” (My Home), featuring singer Tom Frager and Lady Melody as the guest artist, which was also a huge success, allowing Meddy to be broadcast for the first time on major regional radio stations throughout France. The song was the third most downloaded, reported in the “Francophonie Diffusion” in September 2012 just behind Salif Keita and DJ David Guetta!
Between 2012 and 2014, Meddy Gerville continued to perform on a multitude of stages around the world.
In 2015, he released his eighth album titled “Ek out Lamour” (With Your Love) which was also of the Séga/Maloya genre.
“Tropical Rain” is born in 2017 and already promises to not disappoint, delivering the soulful and sultry music in a style that only Meddy can deliver. The basic formation of this opus consists of Giovanni Hidalgo on percussion, Lionel Louéké on guitar, Michel Alibo, impressing us on the bass and Emmanuel Félicité on the drums. Additional guest musicians include: the great trumpet player Randy Brecker, the bandoline virtuoso Hamilton De Hollanda, guitar genius Nguyen Le, percussionist Stéphane Edouard, the captivating voice Myra Maud, great accordionist Marc Berthoumieux, impressive drummer Damien Schmitt, outstanding bassist Dominique DiPiazza, exceptional Karim Ziad, Bernard Joron, Olivier Araste (Lindigo), Fabrice Legros, young bassist Teddy Sorres, flutist Christophe Zoogonès and guitarist Thomas Manerouck.
My Media & Markets
- ▶ Twitter: meddygerville
- ▶ Instagram: meddygerville
- ▶ Website: http://meddygerville.re
- ▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kaflaswa
- ▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UCBRuV0aNrKv-SThJ40llOrg
- ▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/1U4mMKxBjQBYQgTf65W7dd
- ▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/54p9yQC9UdVNRfzs9cnIu2
- ▶ Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/4ETOdnu8MUYsJlhlNq1fXZ
- ▶ Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/1T5HTPQ0ayXHb4lXtdogz8
- ▶ Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/5Uuco4DUg43Q9AJE4VWAbi
- ▶ Spotify 6: http://open.spotify.com/album/6xQ8XY1VS8ewYtMfbBB2UA
The world's artistry via giant steps through a matrix based in the phenomenon placing most of the 7.8 billion of us within 6 or fewer degrees — steps — of each other ...
... a project conceived and built in the fertile, fecund and atavistic ground zero of Bahia, Brazil initially for the discoverability of this singular region's dispossessed genius.
All explained in the window immediately below. Followed — beneath this window — by scores of magnificent artists, each leading to myriads more artists/categories. Inside this window also may be found our Brazilian record store radio, named by British journal The Guardian as one of 10 of the Best Radio Stations Around the World!
IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT
Brazil is not a European nation. It's not a North American nation. It's not an East Asian nation. It straddles -- jungle and desert and dense urban centers -- both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. It absorbed over ten times the number of African slaves taken to the United States of America, and much of its aboriginal population was absorbed into the general population-at-large. Its people have lived under oligarchy, plutocracy, dictatorships and massive corruption, with elements of these still strongly entrenched today.
But!
Brazil has buzz...not the shallow buzz of a fashionable moment...but the deep buzz of a population which in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the tough slog through life they've been allotted by humanity's dregs-in-fine-linen, have chosen not to simply pull themselves along but to lift their voices in song and their bodies in dance...to eat well and converse well and much and to wring the joy out of the day-to-day happenings and small pleasures of life which are so often set aside or ignored in the European, North American, and East Asian nations.
For this Brazil has a genius perhaps unparalleled in all other countries and societies, a genius which thrives alongside peeling paint and holes in the streets and roads, under bad organization by the powers-that-be, both civil and governmental, under a constant rain of societal indignities...
Which is all to say that if you don't know Brazil and you're expecting any semblance of order, progress and light, you will certainly find the light! And the buzz of a people who for generations have responded to privation at many different levels by somehow rising above it all.
Raimundo Sodré, in a conversation ranging through New Orleans and Harlem and the South Side of Chicago ... and Appalachia and Irish villages and Russian shtetls and the unofficial symbol of Brazil's Bahian-born national music (the pandeiro) almost certainly having arrived in Brazil in the hands of Sephardic Jews (including conversos) fleeing the Inquisition, once remarked: "Where there's misery, there's music!"
A pandeirista on the roof. And it's not just music. And it's not just Brazil.
