"Light and Dark is a fun set of fresh performances, polystylistic and authoritative ... Light and Dark keeps finding its way back into my cd player." - Phillip McNally, Cadence, february 2004 L'Orchestre de la Lune (in english that's the orchestra of the moon, but you probably knew that...) is an 11-piece ensemble based in Paris. The bandleader and composer is an american, Jon Handelsman. The rest of the band comes from all sorts of places, France, the US, Senegal, Italy, South Africa, etc. We've been playing in the Paris area for over 10 years now, and we have a devoted following. This is our first recording (it was time!). If you know the Paris modern music scene, you'll recognize some of the influences on our sound, African music being one of the main ones. But there's a lot more in there too. There's avant-garde jazz, James Brown funk, contemporary classical, Indian ragas, New Orleans brass band, Duke Ellington, and so on. At our gigs there's usually a group of people dancing up in front of the stage, and the rest behind listening intently. That's how we like it! The musicians: David Lewis - trumpet. If you know Paris Combo then you know him. A great trumpet player (also a good composer and pianist), he's from Australia, and also played with Manu Dibango. Peter Tholo Segona - trumpet. From Johannesburg, SA, he played with Manu Dibango and with Chris Macgregor's Brotherhood of Breath, a legendary London-based South African jazz band. Bobby Rangell - alto sax, flute. From Denver, one of the most soulful altos around. He plays a lot of salsa and funk as well as jazz. Gilles Miton - baritone sax, flute. Mr. Bari in Paris, he gets all the calls. Check out his Cannonball site, http://www.cannonball-adderley.com. Jean-Louis Damant - trombone. He's from Lyons, another of the first call crowd for studio and performance. A master technician. Jean-Louis Onesta - trombone. A fine soloist, featured in the Australian pianist Chris Cody's quartet. Michael Felberbaum - guitar. Born in Italy, studied in the US, lives in France, fluent in 3 languages, but mostly in guitar-ese. He was the house guitarist at Wally's in Boston. Didier Havet - tuba. One of the top tubists in France, he plays the role of the bass, one of the elements responsible for the band's original sound. Cyril Atef - drums. Another international character, half french, half Iranian, and half American. How many halves does that make? In any case, he's easily the funkiest drummer in Paris. Pape Dieye - percussion. From Senegal, one of the most original and creative percussionists around, he makes his own instruments (and the bass drum that Cyril plays on this record - a sort of wooden djembe with a pedal). Jon Handelsman - tenor sax, flute, clarinet and bass clarinet, composer and bandleader. OK, I admit it, I'm the one writing all this. I was born in New York, grew up partly in England, and now live here in Paris since 1982. Why? Because I love it here! I studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston after a conventional classical musical training, and a less conventional exposure to the english underground scene of the late 60's, and later on the free jazz scene too (and a trip to India in 1972). L'Orchestre de la Lune is my main outlet for composing these days, and I also play in various groups, the main one being the Bobby Few quintet (Bobby is a great pianist from the avant-garde scene in the states, recorded on Blue Note, and loads of other labels). I'm currently writing horn and string arrangements for Manu Dibango, which members of the ODDL will perform on. I hope you will enjoy this record, we certainly enjoyed making it!