Bassist Joelle Leandre Interviewed at AAJ

"You're playing like Jimi Hendrix." That was the nicest compliment that French bassist Jolle Landre received in her first tour of Israel and the Palestinian Authority in late November, 2007. Landre's last solo concert was in Ramallah before an attentive audience that was mostly unfamiliar with her rsum as one of the most creative musicians of the last forty years. “I was on fire that concert," she tells. “Maybe like Hendrix."

Landre is one of those rare musicians that, for many years, you know you love intuitively. For years you closely follow their careers--collecting every item in their rich discographies; reading every review about their releases; and studying their musical and artistic collaborators' rsums in order to get a better sense of their world. You spend hours on the internet trying to figure out how to lay your hands on one of their recordings for a remote Japanese label, and than you meet them and it all makes sense.

2008 is going to be an important one for Landre. She is about to publish an autobiographical book, a documentary film about her will be released in the spring to film festivals around Europe, and some intriguing recordings including a recent duet reunion with Anthony Braxton--twenty years after she first played in his ensemble--and a first recorded collaboration with trumpeter Roy Campbell are also due to be released.

AAJ Israeli correspondent Eyal Hareuveni spent considerable time with Landre while she was in Jerusalem, delving into her rich past, as well as her equally innovative present.

Check out Joelle Leandre: On Freedom and Responsibility at AAJ today!