Entre amis Costel Nitescu

• 1 Fast Heart Beating 02:58
• 2 Barbu Lăutaru 03:18
• 3 Just one of those things 04:55
• 4 The nearness of you 03:53
• 5 Black Nile 03:09
• 6 Oblivion 06:10
• 7 S'Wonderfull 03:28
• 8 Someone to watch over me 05:02
• 9 You took advantage of me 03:45
• 10 You must believe in spring 05:48
• Total Runtime 42:26

Info for Entre amis

A brilliant improviser with a formidable sense of swing, he is undoubtedly the best Gypsy jazz violinist today, and it's not unusual to come across him on stage with such greats as Stochelo Rosenberg and Tchavolo Schmitt. Here he presents a jazz-oriented album, with exceptional musicians: Hugo Guezbar, William Brunard, Dominique Di Piazza and Vincent Frade.

It was in 2018, during a concert with an artist I was producing, that I crossed paths with Costel. He was also playing that evening alongside Jean-Yves Dubanton and Jean-Claude Laudat. What struck me first of all was Costel's virtuosity, his quality of improvisation and adaptation, his classical phrasing and his very precise technique, pressing each note with impressive rhythmic precision. It was an admirable evening, and we extended it by the bedside of a piano on which Costel improvised with disconcerting ease. We met up again a few months later, and he was the first artist I invited to perform in a series of shows I produced every month. He was the first to say yes, without worrying about the organisation, without negotiating his fee, as if his confidence had already been established. It was only natural that a few years later I should ask him to produce his next album. I trusted him completely with the direction of the album, just as he had always trusted me with the marketing direction, each with his own score, like two soloists in tune without ever contradicting each other. Symbolically, we recorded at Studio 26bis in Montreuil, the studio that saw the birth of my first successes as a composer in 2010, but it's also quite symbolic to have chosen Thierry Minot as sound engineer. Beyond his brilliant skills, it was at Studio Accès Digital that we met almost 20 years ago, the studio that was the first to put its trust in me and offer me a residency for 2 years. It's around these stories, around many anecdotes and real symbols, with Costel's friends, with my own, that the album 'Entre amis' was born, and it couldn't have been given a better name. I'm proud to present it to you today, and to let you discover the 10 tracks that continue this beautiful friendship.

Costel Nitescu, violine
Hugo Guezbar, guitar
William Brunard, double bass
Vincent Frade, drums

Costel Nitescu
A classically trained violinist of Romanian origin, he was first violin in the Bucharest National Radio Orchestra from the age of 6.

He went on to record with some of Romania's greatest artists, including accordionist Ionica MINOUNE. Now living in Paris for 15 years, he tirelessly takes his bow to all the jazz stages where swing reigns supreme. Costel NITESCU is as much at home with a repertoire of traditional Central European music as he is with jazz, where his sense of swing and his improvisational skills make him Stéphane GRAPPELLI's best emulator.

For his first album as a leader, Costel NITESCU has chosen to pay tribute to Stéphane Grappelli, with madness and enthusiasm, and a contemporary jazz tone to boot. It's also a mix of genres, where bop flights of fancy mingle with gypsy sounds in a spirited and original way.

This album contains no booklet.