Tea Time by Michael Valeanu

Tea Time is my first album as a leader that was released in 2012.

After having lived for 4 years in NYC, I wanted to capture what I was playing every night in New York City. In order to do so I surrounded myself with musicians who were sharing the stage(s) with me on a very regular basis. Drummer Rajiv Jayaweera, had a regular gig at a place called Madame Geneva in the East Village on which he would often have me on. He had recently joined Cyrille Aimee "guitar" band with which we would later tour the World with for many years.

I had met bassist Or Bareket in 2010 at the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC where we were roommates. We became friends almost immediately and continued to play all sorts of small gigs in NYC.

On a few tracks French pianist, Thomas Enhco joins us as he was visiting NYC while we were recording the album. I knew Thomas from France where he already was an upcoming musician.

The repertoire of this album is mostly composed of Standards from the Great American Songbook. My main reason for moving to NY was to hone my skills as a Jazz guitarists, and part of that quest was to play with many vocalists. From that, I started really paying attention to the lyrics of the songs which started to guide my choice in terms of what song would be on the record. Wether they are in French, Spanish or English all these songs meant something to me.

The album was recorded in one day with no rehearsal as I was not able to afford more than that. Nonetheless, the music flowed pretty effortlessly that day since we were all so used to play together.

Born in Paris, France in 1985, New York based guitarist and composer Michael Valeanu is one of the most exciting players of his generation. His passion for Jazz and for all the other genres of music he came across while growing up as a musician in France and in the United States has allowed him to create a unique voice on his instrument.

michaelvaleanu.com