“The interweaving of the three instruments, often virtuosic, impresses with its mastery. There’s nothing messy in this exuberance.” - Jazz Magazine
Charley Rose leads his trio like a live film director: a tight narrative arc met with total freedom of movement. On tenor saxophone (and electronics), he launches catchy themes only to place them in danger, oscillating between raw lyricism and razor-sharp phrasing.
Beside him, Enzo Carniel (piano, synths, MS20) deploys a kind of harmonic "sorcery"—from quasi-classical arrangements to electric textures and percussive outbursts. Ariel Tessier (drums) propels the ensemble with goldsmith-like precision and a flair for controlled derailment.
Their playground is an avant-garde jazz that embraces the clash of influences. One hears a profoundtaste for form (Stravinsky, Ligeti, Prokofiev) as much as rock energy, dance, and subverted pop music. On stage, the trio moves through a sequence of "scenes": a disarticulated tango, a broken reggaeton, an impressionistic waltz, or a murky ballad, leading into collective crescendos that verge on trance. Transitions are often improvised; the concert is constructed as a series of tableaux, requiring millimeter-perfect listening and a keen sense of dramaturgy. They relish moments where beauty emerges from chaos and then vanishes, leaving the audience suspended.
This spirit is crystallized in the album Dada Pulp (2023): a tribute to Charles Bukowski and his insolent freedom, but also to Jean Dubuffet and the legitimacy of "anything and everything"—that teeming, marginal culture without fixed codes. In a live setting, this philosophy becomes a method: accepting the unexpected, transforming errors into resources, and making the trio sound like a single, breathing organism.
As winners of the prestigious Jazz Migration #7 program, the Charley Rose Trio has brought this"Dada-machine" to major stages such as Jazz in Marciac and Jazz des 5 Continents. Whether in an intimate club or on a grand stage, the trio seeks the same goal: a living, committed performance that captivates the audience and leaves them smiling as they exit.