It is in March 2011 that pianist Joachim Caffonnette organizes the first session with the future members of his quintet. Three days of playing music by Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Garrett but also some of Joachim’s new compositions. From the start, the five members of the band have very good feelings when playing this music together.
The saxophone player Laurent Barbier is the first guy to join the project. Joachim had been willing to ask him for a while. Laurent and Joachim had already established a musical friendship since they both passed the admission test at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 2008.
When the pianist listens for the first time to the music of guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, he quickly decides to express his work as a composer in a band including a guitar. Therefore, he starts looking for a guitar player and finally meets Florent Jeunieaux at the conservatory, in Fabrice Alleman’s combo class.
For the rhythmic section, Joachim chooses to call his old fellow and concert partner , as well as one of the most creative drummers he ever met: Yann Dumont.
To find a double-bass player was the hardest part of the job, as these musicians are pretty scarce on the Belgian jazz scene and mostly very busy. The leader of the band finally chooses the Portuguese free-jazz musician, Hugo Antunes. However, as Hugo was already active in numerous other projects as a well-known musician on the free-jazz scene, he is replaced one year later by Otto Kint, another double-bass player whom Joachim had met at jam sessions in Brussels.
At the end of March 2011, the band plays their first gig in the Brussels’ jazz club The Music Village. The members of the band become aware during that concert that the sensations felt during the working session were right. The concert receives a warm welcome by the club’s audience, and everybody agrees to say that this band has got something convincing and innovative.
Sometime after this first public show, the quintet is selected for the finals of the young jazz formations contest at Dinant Jazz Nights 2011. In spite of very good feedback from the audience and from the musicians of the festival after their rainy opening performance, the Joachim Caffonnette Quintet does not win.
In September 2011, Joachim is hired as the leader of the jam session at the Music Village with his trio. However, because of a hard period in his personal life, Joachim lets the band in stand-by for a while.
In January 2012, the quintet starts playing again with some gigs including one at the Brussel Jazz Marathon. In the mean time, the five jazz cats record some of Joachim’s compositions. Thanks to that recording, they are hired as a band in residence at the famous and selective Sounds Jazz Club for the 2012-2013 cultural season.
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