Trombonist and composer Glenn Ferris was born in 1950 in Los Angeles, California. From 1958 to 1967, he studies classical music with Ed Freudenberg and Miles Anderson in Los Angeles and at the same time, from 1964 to 1967, he studies jazz improvisation and composition under the direction of Don Ellis - being the trombone soloist in his Big Band until 1970.
From 1970, he performs or records in the United-States with George Duke, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Beach Boys, Tim Buckley, Frank Zappa, Harry James, Billy Cobham, Average White Band, James Newton, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, the Brecker's brothers, Stevie Wonder, Tim Berne, Buddy Miles, John Carter, Lou Rawls, Bobby Bradford, Art Pepper...
He forms with Jack Walrath, the Revival group and his own 20 musicians' "Celebration Orchestra", as well as a sextet, a quintet and a quartet.
In 1980, he moves to France which allows him to meet and perform with Chris McGregor and the Brotherhood of Breath, Tony Scott, Michel Petrucciani, Hal Singer, Martial Solal, Sal Nistico, Steve Grossman, Kai Winding, Charles Tyler, Philly Joe Jones, Woody Shaw, Johnny Griffin, Benny Bailey, Buddy Tate, Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, the Orchestre National de Jazz, Carla Bley, Eric Lelann, Ricardo Del Fra, Barney Wilen, Gil Evans, Manu Di Bango, René Urtreger, Ray Anderson, Daniel Humair, Archie Shepp, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Joachim Kühn, Daniel Huck, Eric Watson, Louis Sclavis, Aldo Romano, Henri Texier, Michel Portal, Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu...
Glenn Ferris, also leads his own bands : Quintet, Quartet, a Duo with Paul Breslin and the Glenn Ferris Trio with Vincent Segal (cello) and Bruno Rousselet (bass)...

Could you present us your new quintet - with whom you recorded the album "Skin Me !" on Naïve, and with whom you are playing tonight, here at Midem ?

Glenn Ferris : "The name of the group is "Pentessence". I always liked the word quintessence but I thought this was quite used a lot, so why not try to find a way to say it in a different way, so I used the greek for five : pentessence. I always try to find a name that means something and has a strong kind of poetry in itself.
Pentessence, five, essential, spirits - five musicians - and we try to reach the essential in our music and this group here is a quintet of musicians I love playing with. I played many years with Bruno Rousselet on the double bass and Jacques Boudreaux on the drums, and they are always my first choice musicians in my groups.
I know Philippe Milanta throughout his work and we got together to see how the music would work and he was fantastic for finding the right orchestral, colors and images for the music on his piano. He is a piano player with a large culture in the jazz tradition, from Ellington, to Basie, Errol Garner, Ahmad Jamal... but at the same time, of course, he has his own personal voice.
Jean-Michel Cabrol is a saxophonist from near Narbonne, in the South of France, and we played together for the first time several years ago. I was very excited to play with him because he is such a good player and he has such a big sound, for me a real spirit. And not only that but it's his matter of playing together that was for me very special. When I played something it was like they were just osmoses happening where the sound fuses together and the phrases get together.
So I always knew I wanted to do a record with him one day, and when the idea to do a record with Naïve came about, I thought "yes, I would like to do a quintet like this group".
I have done other records with rather more unorthodox formations : cello-bass-trombone with The Glenn Ferris trio - we did three records on Enja Records ("Flesh and Stone", "Face Lift" and "Refugees"); then I thought it would be nice just to change a little bit but I stayed with the trio too, this time with drums-bass-trombone - we did a nice record on Enja also, called "Chrominance".
These groups still exist but you go on with new projects and I thought this time I'd like to do something that in a way is more classic as a formation, and the music also would be, I think, more accessible to a bigger audience, without making creative concessions.
The music stays creative but it is a music that is - I mean a lot of people, when there's no drums, or there's no piano, wonder why and they have a hard time listening to the music ! So this time, I thought, "Well, here is a normal group : two horns, piano, bass and drums" !
It is music I love to do anyway. I was inspired by these kind of Cannonball Adderley Quintet, music that was really on fire, creative but at the same time, that was music that kind of touched everyone, even if you didn't like jazz you could like it.

So this group is for me very joyfull, very happy, dancing, creative, jazz that is original because a lot of my music is original compositions. Just the overall flow of the music is mine and at the same time I touch the essential ingredients that are part of the jazz, the language from the beggining.
I use all of it, well I use all my music influnces to, because I love different musical ideas and concepts. I just put them into a Glenn Ferris type of format.
I am alos happy with the record - since a couple of months now it has been well received by the critics and the public. We have won a jazz academy award and things are going well. I think this summer we are going to do quite a few festivals, including Jazz à Vienne and so things look good for this group."


What does it represent for you to play at the Midem ?

Glenn : "Well it represents a chance to reach more of a business public, which might be very attracted to this group and we have the possibility they would like to book us for some concerts. You never know who is there, so it is very important to be visible in these kind of situations. It is a goog opportunity to have this group exposed to a real core of music business people. You never know, something nice could very well happen !"