ArtistInfo

Fabrizio Cassol
Pitié!

Album FR 2008 on Cypres label
Jazz, Rock and Classical (Fusion)

“Pitié!” is a collaboration of Fabrizio Cassol and Alain Platel and was inspired by Bach's Saint Matthew Passion, transposed into a musical style interwoven with multifarious influences. The result is overwhelming in emotion, on the verge of opera. The production has been programmed nearly one hundred times in some forty cities around the world. Fabrizio Cassol's re-orchestration blends influences from jazz, manouche, Mali and the blues, backed up by the trio Aka Moon, and it manages to create a new narrative based on one of music's monuments. This version of the Passion seeks to express the sorrow of a mother, a role that does not exist in the original work, confronted as she is by the sacrifice of her son. From this choice we have a cast of three singers: a soprano for the mother and two very similar voices for the children (an alto/mezzo and a counter-tenor, the young Congolese Serge Kakudji, with his limpid timbre). The role of Christ is doubled here, following an esoteric vision whereby Christ was simultaneously a masculine and a feminine soul. The outcome is a moving experience in which the idea of compassion, pushed to the point of paroxysm that is the sacrifice of oneself, is nonetheless portrayed in a positive light. The ultimate expression of this music, of this Passion, is the love, called upon and shared, that radiates through each scene.

Musicians

	Fabrizio Cassol as, sax, *1964 BE arranged by, alto saxophone, album by
	Philippe Thuriot , *1968 BE accordion, backing vocals
	Michel Hatzigeorgiou b, eb, *1961 BE bass guitar
	Lode Vercampt vc, BE cello, backing vocals
	Alain Platel , choreography
	Serge Kakudji , countertenor vocals
	Stéphane Galland dr, *1969 BE drums, backing vocals
	Magic Malik fl, voc, *1969 FR flute, backing vocals, voice
	Cristina Zavalloni voc, p, *1973 IT mezzo-soprano vocals
	Monica Brett-Crowther mezzo-soprano vocals
	Laura Claycomb voc, *1968 US soprano vocals
	Melissa Givens voc, soprano vocals
	Arelle Besson trumpet, backing vocals
	Sanne Van Hek trumpet, backing vocals
	Alexandre Cavalière violin, backing vocals
	Tcha Limberger vn, voc, g, *1977 BE violin, backing vocals, voice

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