Eric Truffaz

Eric Truffaz
Jazzworld Stage
13:20 25th June 2000

A delight of the Festival was bumping into Eric Truffaz's set on the Jazz World stage on Sunday early afternoon. Knowing nothing of him and his group and relatively little modern jazz, it was still clear that this was something special.

Eric Truffaz plays the trumpet in the style of late miles Davis and was accompanied by an extremely talented group consisting of Fender piano, electric bass, drums and a wicked MC called Nya. Whilst the trumpet and piano were following fairly typical modern jazz lines, the bass and drums produced a kicking breakbeat to an extent that would have had the dance tent jumping. Indeed, by the end of the set there was a decent sized crowd seriously getting off on the slamming beat, not bad for a Sunday afternoon. The vocals over the top were highly reminiscent of Reprazent and helped to build an incredible fusion of musical genres. Each of the group played solos with rousing cheers for the bassist and drummer.

Having not realised that music like this even existed, Eric Truffaz's back catalogue will be in my CD collection by, say, Monday afternoon. Check them out.