DAMON BROWN & STÉPHANE MERCIER QUINTET / The Road / N° cat. HR015 - UPC 5059505443039

BUY

​LINE-UP
Damon Brown - cornet, voices
Stéphane Mercier - alto saxophone
Igor Gehenot - piano
Nicolas Thys - double bass
Darren Beckett - drums

TRACKLIST
1. Joe's Serenity
2. Pink Legged Tourist
3. The Wrong Way Around
4. I Left My Heart In San Francisco
5. The Road Less Traveled
6. Kit Kat
7. Step 2
8. Falling Down

​It was during a rehearsal in Paris for a Cambodian tour that Damon and Stéphane first met in 2017. With a taste that leaves you wanting more, the trumpeter invited the saxophonist to play a series of concerts in London. Stéphane then headed off to Seoul, Damon's home for many years, where they performed live 13 times in 11 days, despite the August heat. 

The duo is now ready to launch its own project, and this time they did so on the Belgian scene, backed up by the prodigious Irish drummer Darren Beckett, Stéphane's long-standing New York colleague.

The repertoire was quickly put together, with Igor Géhénot's "Step 2", which won acclaim at the Octaves de la Musique, interspersed with the two blowers' compositions.
To round off a well-balanced but acoustic album, Damon offers to sing "I left my heart in San Francisco", Tony Bennett's signature tune, which brings out the English trumpeter's crooner, but also his raw sensitivity.


Recorded and mixed by Jonas Verrijdt at WallStudio in Grand-Reng, Belgium (Assistant: Lenny Cassart)
Mastered by Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Studio in New York, USA 
Produced by Hypnote Records asbl

Release date: March 25, 2020