Not yet twenty years old, Henri Texier already played with jazz greats like Bud Powell, Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon and Kenny Clarke. He owed these gigs for a great deal to Daniel Humair, the French star drummer, he formed a swinging rhythmsection with. Texier is one of those European musicians who learned the trade by accompanying American jazz greats, but after the arrival of free jazz dissociated themselves from bebop and went looking for their own European identity. That identity was found on a road somewhere between free jazz, hard-bop and post-bop. His Azur Quartet has become an established name and with his new Strada Sextet and their latest CD Alerte à l'Eau he stresses once more that he belongs to the most important musicians of Europe.
