Grand Ensemble Koa
CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ROCK
Grand Ensemble Koa is a large group with an atypical instrumentation and an explosive character. Eight musicians, led by bassist and composer Alfred Vilayleck, blend jazz and rock, pop and contemporary music, electric and acoustic sounds, improvisation and composition, in a style that is uniquely their own.
After turning to the Beat Generation — that generation of nonconformists embodied by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs — whose poems and words in search of freedom inspired the album BEAT in 2019.
In 2019, inspired by Balkan dances and music, with their broken yet melodic rhythms, the project La Danse des Insoumis (“Dance of the Unbowed”) emerged: an imaginary dance in which an assembly rises up against the constraints of our society, making the most of the present moment.
Résistances is the ensemble’s new creation project for 2025–2027. With this project, Grand Ensemble Koa offers a jazz freed from aesthetic constraints, championing freedom of thought. It is an invitation to reflect and to celebrate human creativity.
Line up
- Caroline Sentis: voice
- Matthieu Chédeville: soprano sax
- Armel Courrée: alto and barython sax
- Jérôme Dufour: tenor sax
- Pascal Bouvier: trombone
- Killian Rebreyend: vibraphone
- Daniel Moreau: keyboards, piano
- Alfred Vilayleck: electric bass
- Julien Grégoire: drums
Projects
RÉSISTANCES
“Résistances” is the new creative project of the Grand Ensemble. With this project, the Grand Ensemble Koa offers a jazz free from aesthetic constraints, in favor of freedom of thought. It is a call for reflection and a celebration of human creativity.
Dance of the Unsubmissives
Dance of the Unsubmissives is an imaginary dance in which a joyful assembly of uncertain characters rebels against the constraints of our society by dancing and feasting, making the most of the present moment.
BEAT
The jazz ensemble from Montpellier follows in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Animated by the pulsations of the literary and intellectual movement of the "Beat Generation", the 8 virtuosos set to music the texts of these anti-conformist poets, carried by the luminous voice of Caroline Sentis.
AHIMSA
The Sanskrit word Ahimsâ designates, in the religions of India, non-violence and even the absence of any intention to harm.
Koa Roi
An absurd musical tale, for eleven musicians and a comedian in the middle of a power struggle...
In pictures
Press review
CULTUREJAZZ – SEPTEMBER 2020
« Asphodel, the first piece, is articulated around the velvety voice of the trombone, the electric bass imposes its rock beat, the vibra pushes the walls of sound and opens the space of the studio and of our heads, the spirit of Pink Floyd comes to take a look when the vocalist is doubled by the chorus of all the others Impressive. »
Alain Gauthier
JAZZMAGAZINE – OCTOBER 2019
« Caroline Sentis opened her voice to modulations similar to trapeze jumps and which rendered, exactly, the rustle of sulphurous tongues emanating from these bodies in furnace that had been the poets of the Beat […]. »
Guy Darol
LES DERNIÈRES NOUVELLES DU JAZZ – JANUARY 2019
« A brilliant confirmation of Alfred Vilayleck’s talent as a composer and of the musical and instrumental quality of the members of the Grand Ensemble Koa de Montpellier. (…) The quality of the soloists irradiates the improvised spaces, and the collective sense is palpable in the whole course of the CD, track after track. »
Xavier Prévost
