Happy to support French soul and an integral part of the French soul movement, Osmojam. Going forward, we will be working with this awesome singer to bring you more of the underground from Paris and beyond. Peep this great feature from her site, FrenchSoulIsNotDeadYet.com, on an up and coming artist, Flow Fourlin, that we helped to translate into English. Enjoy.
_______________
By Osmojam
I dont stumble upon many articles dealing with how music makes one feel. For some, music can hardly trigger any emotion. For others, music is like a religion. For musician, Flow Fourlin, he believes music, for many people, is, the soundtrack of their lives. Every evening, this young French saxophonist, regardless of location, medidates during a solitary walk with his headphones comfortably in place. When I listen to Naïma by John Coltrane, it resounds with some of my personal memories he states. Therefore if i ever play this music, i cant cheat.
At 23 years old, he will soon begin a career in Los Angeles a side man, after having patiently built an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Black music. So, it will be difficult to see him live in France, but you can hear him on Leslie Phillipss album Interlude, or listen to one of his compositions on Akua Naru soon-to-be-released album, along with Cody Chesnutt and Christian Scott.
According to Flow, music is first and foremost, about people. Thus, you dont really play soul or R&B music without knowing anything about the story of the genre, or the legacy the pioneers wanted to transmit. That is probably why he has a problem with the use of the word jazz, just like his mentor, the trumpet player, Nicholas Payton. Payton regrets that the rebellious dimension of this music is often put aside. In collective imagination, jazz is too often associated to musical elitism, to the establishment, or relegated to performances in smoky nightclubs, where you have to wear a suit.
Follow Flow Fourlin on Twitter
Like Flow Fourlin on Facebook