50th Anniversary

The Workshop de Lyon (previously known as Free Jazz Workshop from 1967 to 1975) is one of the first French free jazz bands. They never stopped playing in 50 years. This boxset is a reissue of their seven LPs (from 1973 to 1997) plus a long out-of-print CD and some live bonus tracks from 1979 and 2010. After some changes of musicians at the very beginning of the band, they released their first album in 1973 with Jean Méreu (trumpet), Maurice Merle (sax), Patrick Vollat (piano), Jean Bolcato (bass), and Christian Rollet (drums). After the first album Jean Méreu left the band and the young Louis Sclavis joined the band. On the third album the pianist left which left the band as a quartet to this today. Louis Sclavis left the band after 14 years to be replaced by Jean-Paul Autin in 1988. The death of Maurice Merle in 2003 almost marked the end of the band. Jean Aussanaire replaced him quickly and has stayed in the band since. Workshop de Lyon played thousands of gigs all over the world: Brazil, Syria, Egypt, USA, and all over Europe. They have their very peculiar sound and tunes, you might call "ARFI soud", named after the musical collective they started in 1977 in Lyon including bands like Marvelous Band and La Marmite Infernale.