FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DE JAZZ DE MONTRÉAL 2012: JAMES TAYLOR REÇOIT LE SPIRIT AWARD
Vidéo de la remise du prix Jazz Spirit 2012 à James Taylor le 27 juin dernier lors du Festival de Jazz de Montréal par le président-fondateur du Festival, Alain Simard, et de son cofondateur et directeur artistique, André Ménard...
James Taylor was awarded the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s Spirit Award Wednesday afternoon during a brief ceremony in the Green Room in Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts.
The award, which honours the contributions of popular artists to the world of music, is essentially the non-jazz superstar award. Previous recipients include Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and Robert Plant.
Taylor made most of his preliminary comments in decent French and used much of the time to praise the musicians in his backup band.
“It’s a great honour to tour with these great players,” Taylor said. “I’m in good company with the others who have received this honour. It’s true that I’ve had much luck in my career playing music. And I’m very satisfied.”
“It’s the joy of my life to play music with these guys, because they’re great friends, but also, really, they’re mature and they’ve survived and they’ve been through a lot. They’ve experienced a lot, and they’ve played many, many years of music,” he said.
“A 12-piece group like this – four singers, myself … it’s about as large a group as you can expect to do head arrangements with … improvised arrangements. So nobody’s playing parts. There are a few things that we sketch out in advance, but, generally speaking, people are coming up with their own part. And it means they have to listen. So it’s always a work in progress,” Taylor said.
“In a sense, it’s jazz. It’s much more confined than jazz. Jazz makes an effort to be different each time. Ours is a different thing. We’re trying to get it closer and closer to perfection, to the best arrangement possible. So rather than always starting in the middle and spreading out, we concentrate in, always,” he said.
When it was suggested that he’s been influenced by jazz, Taylor paused. “I’ve been very influenced by Afro-Cuban and by Brazilian, by blues, a lot, and it’s true that I don’t know what to call the music. I have no idea,” he said.
Bernard Perusse