Nefertiti Quartet
Nefertiti Quartet
Berthold Records
Labyrinthine—but with no danger of losing your bearings! With their fifth album, the Paris-founded Nefertiti Quartet have ushered in a new phase in their development: acting as a true collective that knows no bounds when it comes to fusing compositional ideas with improvisational freedom.
That distinctive “Nefertiti touch”, which has long characterised this adventurous jazz four-piece, is as palpable as ever on “Maze in Köln”. Yet, something fundamental has shifted. Whilst the composition had previously lain entirely in the hands of pianist Delphine Deau, this time around every member has contributed tracks or thematic building blocks. It was a logical step, according to the band’s founder—and one she suggested herself. For years, it had been taken for granted that her compositions formed the bedrock of their collective work. The arrangements, though, quickly became a group effort, and the interpretations grew increasingly open. Now, everyone has had an equal stake right from the outset—not just musically, but also organisationally. The fact that this effortlessly achieved progress has left no jarring marks on their sound or style speaks volumes for the collective’s powerful identity. To Delphine Deau, this is hardly surprising: “We all want the same thing: Nefertiti music! Even when there’s new input, in the end, everything passes through the Nefertiti arrangement mill.” And thus, it acquires that aforementioned unmistakable touch.
The Nefertiti Quartet—initially known simply as Nefertiti, after Wayne Shorter’s famous composition—was formed at the CRR Conservatory in Paris. Pianist Delphine Deau, saxophonist Camille Maussion, double bassist Pedro Ivo Ferreira, and drummer Pierre Demange all began their studies there at the same time in 2012. Ferreira had then just moved to Paris from southern Brazil. The quartet, formed step-by-step by Deau and officially established in 2013, forged bonds so close that it even withstood Ferreira’s relocation to a distant place of study (he has lived in Amsterdam since 2014)—a sure sign of the extraordinary spirit that unites the four of them. Deau, originally from Paris, has spent the last two years living near Nancy in eastern France, while Maussion and Demange still live in the capital. All four have long been playing in other, wildly diverse line-ups and pursuing separate projects, yet for each of them, the Nefertiti Quartet remains a vital focal point in their creative activities.
“We have very close personal contact. We’re good friends and have been right from the start,” Deau and Ferreira emphasise. “It’s like family.” This special relationship provides the perfect breeding ground for their intense, incredibly flexible musical interplay. Pedro Ivo Ferreira highlights one specific aspect: “It’s wonderful to have that kind of trust in one another—not just on a human level, but a musical one too. You only get that depth of quality when you know each other inside out and genuinely like each other. No matter what happens musically, we can rely on one another.”
Collective, improvisational free flights are a major element of the quartet’s music, though they are always anchored to compositional elements and arrangement guidelines. Themes or specific motifs can pop up at any given part of a piece—sometimes the improvisation actually leads into a theme rather than breaking away from it. “That’s the treasure at the end of the maze,” laughs Delphine Deau. It was she who introduced the term “maze” for the current album—the result of another innovation in the songwriting process, this time a personal one. “For the first time, I worked with graphic sketches. I drew out scenarios and sprawling stories, mapping out different paths. Sometimes it looked like a labyrinth, which was then transcribed onto sheet music paper.”
The interlocking of composition and improvisation is an inexhaustible topic among contemporary jazz musicians, and one that is frequently philosophised about. The Nefertiti Quartet also took time to find their feet in this regard, before ultimately reaching the superlative standard that has earned them awards and a great deal of international attention. Ferreira revisits the concept of the Nefertiti touch: “Bearing in mind that improvisation has always played a major role for us, and that improvising is also a form of composing, a lot of that was there from the beginning. The concept really began to crystallise around our second album, Morse Code.” For Deau, the Nefertiti sound truly established itself on their third album, Frameless, as the group allowed themselves more and more freedom. Their 2015 debut, Danses Futuristes, also deserves a mention—a title that would just as easily fit the quartet’s current output.
Following their first Berthold Records album, Live in Paris, the band opted for live recordings once again—though without making it the main point of focus. “We realised that the energy of a live situation does us a world of good compared to a studio setting.” Two gripping concert nights at the Loft in Cologne yielded more than enough material. The applause was intentionally edited out for the most part so as not to disrupt the listener’s concentration. The entirely new tracks guide the listener through a maze whose twists and turns expose a variety of emotions: from the dark desire and drama of “Obsession” to the polyrhythmic, pulsing “Kangooroo”, the almost gracefully ballad-like hues of “My Owl”, the idiosyncratic groove facets of “Tree In Your Brain”, and the lyrical resolution of the closing track, “Maze III”.
There is no question about it: the Nefertiti Quartet is one of the most exciting, improvisationally fuelled groups in contemporary jazz, both in France and far beyond.
