Thirty years after his first album of only original compositions, the guitarist wanted to mark this anniversary with a record paying tribute to the English bands that marked his adolescence. Thus was born Melody Makers, which builds a new bridge between jazz, rock and pop, offering an original rereading of the great standards of the “British” scene. The trio’s second album, released in 2012, features only compositions that claim this seventies heritage.

This trio formula with cello is not common. It was born from the meeting between Pierrejean and Clément Petit. By constantly pushing back the register and the sound palette of his instrument, he brings virtuosity to a level not reached in the genre. Add a drummer juggling with nuances (without sacrificing groove), and you get a Power jazz trio with a unique sound, both very acoustic and electric, delicate and energetic, and which is living proof that the compartmentalization of genres is no longer necessary today.

After his step on the Zappaian side, Pierrejean Gaucher feels the need to return to writing through his compositions. His meeting with saxophonist Eric Seva then gave him the desire to write especially for the extremes: the baritone and the soprano (or even the sopranino). All this in a logic of permanent counterpoint with the guitar, inspired by the duo Gerry Mulligan-Chet Baker.

Always faithful to his drummer of the time (André Charlier), he imagined and wrote a repertoire that travelled by borrowing from European folklore (hence the name of the group) to offer a music rich in colour and very virtuoso. This one benefited from a state order from the Ministry of Culture. This project combines a demanding writing style in the tradition of Abus and Zappa, with improvisation tracks inherited from the New Trio.

In 1994, a French festival invited guitarist Pierrejean Gaucher to stage an evening in homage to Frank Zappa. Pierrejean was a fan of the first hour and became passionate about this project. He began by listening to the entire discography of the brilliant mustache, then extracted his favourite extracts and rearranged them for a quintet composed of some of the best jazzmen in France.

Rather than playing a few songs “the way he did”, he opted for another approach: zapping Zappa. In fact, mixing whole titles, motifs, even simple riffs, to recreate a musical kaleidoscope of the Zappaian universe, from the first “Mothers” to the latest contemporary works. Following the success of this project in many concerts and festivals, it was recorded “Live” in October 1997. A second public recording in Germany was released as a bootleg in 2002, with another team.