KUMA does exhale the fumet of both casseroles it’s been simmering in : Cully Jazz festival (Switzerland) and the Blakat Jam Sessions of Carouge’s Chat Noir club (Geneva – Switzerland). In the former, where the band constituted since 2012, the festival-goers knew better than to miss their intense and joyful jazz-funk experimentations. In the latter, the extended collective including a full brass section turns into a deluxe cover-band, devoting each night to a particular soul / funk artist. In both cases, never does the virtuosity of these exceptional musicians forget the audience, or come in the way of the groove, fun and sharing spirit.
The same qualities inhabit the compositions of Matthieu Llodra (keyboards) and Arthur Donnot (saxophone) on KUMA’s music. Maxence Sibille’s drums and Fabien Iannone’s bass, in all sobriety, display a range of sounds and grooves blurring the perception between playing and programming, acoustic and electronic. Themes turn into loops, in a jazz form of writing that metabolized sample culture. Just like the musicians in the 70’s and 80’s who melted afro-american scholarly music with pop trends, Llodra and Donnot grew up with hip-hop, and the house / techno club scene. They belong to this generation that naturally reinvents a kind of smooth jazz from the XXIst century.
