FC: "There are some people in France, who it is possible to compare, without being pretentious, to those who worked with Miles Davis in the States. The initial nucleus assembled around Christian Vander has burst into full fruit from little seeds. The leader, Vander has had the courage to effect a rupture in the Anglo-Saxon dominance. Since then, some of the previously unknown people have been accepted. After seven years of Magma, there existed in France a completely original, musical movement, which developed itself into many different facets. Magma had progressed from clubs of three hundred people, to halls holding two thousand. Zao, from three hundred to a thousand, even in places like Chambéry or Reims. We have cleared the ground, now we grow old, but the young are ready to relieve us. There will soon be some very strong bands in France."
That was François Cahen talking at a bar in the Les Halles district of Paris. On the other side of the road, the equipment of ZAO is installed in the basement of an antique shop, which has been transformed into a rehearsal room. The conversation continued on the fusion between the Anglo-Saxon music (jazz, rock) and our own European cultural inheritance, like the pillaging of treasures, the old civilizations and their rhythms based on the sun.
Alongside me, Didier Lockwood finishes eating. He is only twenty years old, but the two and a half years spent on the road with Magma were enough to make him recognizable as one of the bright hopes of this European sorcery. The start of his dazzling career is in fact the perfect example of what Francois Cahen was saying. He took part on the most recent ZAO album ('Kawana'), with whom he goes on tour, on the latest CLEARLIGHT record ('Les Contes du Singe Fou') and is soon to release two albums shot full of his superb bowmanship: The first is called 'Synthesis' and assembles a group (also named Synthesis) of twenty-five French musicians which include André Ceccarelli, François Jeanneau, Bob Borowski and so on... The other also promises a lot, since besides Didier and his brother Francis (on piano), he is joined by Kirt Rust (the drummer from Weidorje), Patrick Gauthier on keyboards, and Bunny Brunel, the electric bass player from Joachim Kuhn's group... But how has he been able to arrive there so quickly?
DL: "I started to play the violin at six years of age. I studied classical music at the Calais Conservatory, where my father is rightly professor of violin. But I was not really passionate about music until I was fourteen years old. I was there for six months with my arm in plaster, I reflected a lot, and I began to catch a glimpse of music in a new light. Since then I have only wanted to make music. At that time, I was listening to Zappa and the 'King Kong' album that Ponty made with him. I got my award from the Calais Conservatory, and at fifteen years old I formed a group with my brother who was playing piano, he had been engrossed in Coltrane since the age of eleven. That was called ABRACADABRA, and in it we had the old blokes from ALICE. We lived in Vallauris, in a villa we had been given by a patron. We got salaries from him; this was heaven. After that, I did some things with ZOO at Valbonne, and I went back to normal music school in Paris. I was taking some lesson in harmony and piano, I played a little trumpet, but above all it was to improve my violin technique a lot. Paris was the gland, I was going to the Gibus, trying to penetrate into this job, but already the sharks were demoralizing me. Then the course of action was to tour with some variety singers on the south coast. That was a catastrophe, wasteful... The entire world went to Paris, except my brother and I. I was at the big open air Festival in Antibes, and I had a premonition that something would happen. One evening I was eating in a restaurant, and John McLaughlin was there at a neighbouring table. I asked to play with his group, and the same evening we had a monstrous jam in the studio at Antibes: there was McLaughlin, Michael Walden, the violin quartet, my brother, myself; the managers of Mahavishnu Orchestra... This was fabulous; it released a terrific urge. Fifteen days later, I went to see Magma in concert in Nice. I met Christian Vander, and he telephoned me a short while later to ask me to join his group. I stayed two and a half years with Magma."
MB: Why did you leave?
DL: "Lets say that there were some misunderstandings, some discomfort. Personal mainly, but that was occasionally reflecting on the music. This took a long while to break down. Last spring, I sent a letter to Christian to say that I was leaving the group. I'd had a laugh, but got the impression it was spoilt for me. And then, for the concerts that summer (Le Castellet, Copenhagen, Séte...) Christian desperately needed to temporarily reform the group. This was great, because we all knew that this was the end, we were free, and we were full of energy. Afterwards Jannick Top arrived, and I wanted to stay because I really craved to play alongside him. He represents a sort of musical ideal. The Machine... This lasted two months, and then, lamentably, it broke down."
MB: Why?
DL: 'Musical divergences between Christian and Jannick There was one who wanted to go faster than the other. I believe that one was lacking in patience, because the other was very ill. But the music was so harsh that one was beginning to get scared that they would lose a certain part of the public. This was a shame, because at the same time it was all very liberated."
MB: Which concerts by Magma bring you the best memories?
DL: "There was a superb one in Lille towards the beginning, and then the concerts at the Tavern of the Olympia where we recorded the 'Live' album. It was all falling into place at that time. And those from the summer of 1976."
MB: When did you begin to perform with ZAO?
DL: "Last summer, in Jeff Seffer's house in Bourgogne. At the start he was only thinking to record 'Kawana'. I planned to leave Magma after the concerts at the Renaissance Théâtre in Paris."
There followed a long discussion on rock-critics (!?), jazz-rock (what is it? What's the point of labels!), the show versus the music, where I learnt that Didier spent two years in secondary schools just listening to records.
DL: 'My influences are really quite general. They range from Bartok and Stravinsky to Hendrix, passing by Stéphane Grappelli. I play the third album by SOFT MACHINE a lot, in bursts. But I believe that actually the person who I feel has been the most influential is Jannick Top; in his manner of thinking about music, and life... That's what interests me; it is the flow, the communication. Hendrix was not an extraordinary guitar technician, but he was a medium, a creator. Like Coltrane, Some people play in a manner so personal that there is no one like them. The same goes for McLaughlin, he owes some things to Hendrix, he acknowledges that himself. Besides, McLaughlin is fantastic himself. When he was playing in Orange it was magic. He was truly giving, and he laid down a fabulous track. Before this it was a closed stage, nothing was passing him, he was playing for the people and the barriers were collapsing. For me, this was the arrival of my love for the stage, from that impression of leading the audience by the hand. In those moments there, he was able to lead them wherever he wanted, it was crazy..."
MB: That's a bit dangerous, is it not?
DL: "Yes, for sure. It needs a vision, not too ugly, that has been thought through until the end."