John D’earth knows Charlottesville music. Since settling in town in 1981, he’s come to define the local jazz scene—and beyond—with his considerable crossover into pop genres, and reach as a music teacher.
So when D’earth decides to bring a French jazz pianist stateside for a local residency, culminating with a show alongside himself and the University of Virginia Jazz Ensemble at the Paramount Theater on April 28, the ears of jazz aficionados and casual music fans alike perk up.
The visiting pianist is Damien Groleau. Born in 1983, Groleau won national recognition in France at only 16 years old, and began a stage career that would eventually establish him as a virtuoso in multiple genres. He’s since released six solo albums, picked up the flute along the way, and provided instrumentation on 15 records for other composers. Now well known for his piano and flute playing as well as his compositions, Groleau is primarily influenced by American jazz, but accented by European romantic and Latin music. In addition to his home country, he’s toured Brazil, Tunisia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, and the United States.
“Damien’s piano music for me, it is the legacy of a huge jazz tradition we see expressed in, say, Bill Evans,” D’earth says. “He is just so introspective and cool.”
D’earth himself played his first stage show—“in a tux,” he specifies—when he was 14. He says finding jazz at a young age isn’t out of the ordinary. The music’s free-form, improvisational nature seems to simply glom on to young prodigies’ brains.
Music found its way into Groleau’s life despite it never being around in his household. With no influence from his parents, he somehow began listening to jazz when he was about 11 and bought his first record at 12. “It just started like this,” Groleau says in his shy, calculated English. “I started to play on my own.”
Groleau’s current week-long U.S. residency began when he arrived in Charlottesville on April 20 after a two-day visit to New York City. He disembarked his train, and rehearsed for the first time that night with the UVA Jazz Ensemble, for which D’earth serves as director, meeting the players and running through several songs D’earth had selected. The group sat down together again the next day, Friday, before taking part in a concert at Old Cabell Hall that Sunday.
The first show on Groleau’s schedule, Brother From A Sister City! (Groleau also happens to be from one of Charlottesville’s sister cities, Besançon, France), had him plugging into the UVA Jazz Ensemble’s typical lineup, which already features two piano players. D’earth arranged for the show to include a “big piano trade,” along with instrumentation from the rest of the band, highlighted by fourth-year Michael McNulty on guitar.
Earlier in the week, D’earth, the ensemble, and Groleau began preparations for their second show, the Paramount event, for which all proceeds will go to support the Jefferson Area Board for Aging. Along the way, Groleau took part in other improvisations with D’earth, and presented in front of UVA students in his native French.
The show on Friday, titled Jazz Digs JABA, promises to be “a complete circus,” D’earth says. In addition to D’earth on horns, Groleau on piano and (likely) flute, and the UVA Jazz Ensemble, D’earth has arranged special guest performances by the “three tenors” (no, not those Three Tenors). Local musician and radio host Terri Allard will act as mistress of ceremonies.
So, what will the featured act of Groleau, D’earth, and the ensemble play? The Frenchman learned of the setlist unexpectedly during a Zoom call on March 31. D’earth’s surprise idea: Center the show on a piece he penned, “Ephemera,” based on three poems written by his late brother. The piece, originally composed for jazz artist Veronica Swift, who performed it with the Youth Orchestra of Central Virginia in 2011, deals with “exuberant living, loving, and surviving in a world of inevitable change and loss,” wrote D’earth at the time of “Ephemera”’s debut.
“The poems are basically a celebration of small moments in life that should be able to happen but that perhaps didn’t happen,” the composer says. “It really resonates with the whole concept of living through a whole life, which is what JABA is all about … dealing with the last phase and the last act.”
JABA, in operation since 1975, provides services to older adults, individuals with disabilities, and caregivers in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties. When UVA stepped forward to work with the organization and wanted to put on a show to support JABA, D’earth thought the marriage was perfect. Jazz, after all, is a genre that speaks to listeners of all ages.
“I think everyone can express themself in jazz. We have different cultures, different countries, but there is a common point in jazz,” Groleau says. “Each song has a story for me. I’m trying to speak about something in my life and share joy. You can be young or older—it is the same feeling.”