Lyricarte

Watergate 7 + 1

Jazz Band

The group was created in 1974 by brothers Michel and Alain MARCHETEAU and Daniel BARDA. It was the time of the "Watergate" scandal, a sordid affair of microphones hidden in US government offices. Also the subtitle of this band name was: "The only orchestra playing without microphones!".

But the most interesting thing was that this band had chosen to play a traditional jazz repertoire unknown in France, coming from bands in the San Francisco area that certainly took up themes of New FranceOrléans, but had also created a quantity of original compositions in the same style.

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The Watergate 7+1 is therefore, like these Western American bands, a "muscular" formation consisting of two trumpets, a clarinet, a trombone, piano, banjo, tuba and drums, eight musicians who are today:

Marcel BORNSTEIN          Trumpet
Jean-Pierre RIO                 Trumpet
Georges BILLECARD         Clarinet
Daniel BARDA                    Trombone
Eric GEMSA                         Piano
Alain MARCHETEAU         Banjo
Michel MARCHETEAU      Tuba
François BIENSAN            Battery

For more than forty years, the orchestra has participated in the largest European festivals as well as the gigantic festival of SACRAMENTO (California) from 1980 to 1983. The American press, by the voice of LOS ANGELES TIMES placed it as one of the three best bands out of 75,  which 60, all American, played exactly the same repertoire!

The Watergate 7+1, which started for a few months with a single trumpet, so at 7, recorded 10 albums, including 3 33-rpm microssillons and 7 Cds.