World music comes to the Malta Arts Festival courtesy of a concert by the renowned Few Trio. Jo Caruana meets celebrated double-bass player Renaud Garcia-Fons.

[attach id=203137 size="medium"]The Few Trio music group.[/attach]

With the Malta Arts Festival now in full swing, renowned world music group Few Trio – made up of double bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons, French guitarist Louis Winsberg and Indo-French table player Prabhu Edouard – will delight audiences with an international concert tomorrow.

Garcia-Fons was a music enthusiast by the time he turned five. Born near Paris in 1962 to parents from the Catalonia region of northeastern Spain, he was encouraged to take up the piano and classical guitar.

“I later studied the double bass at the Paris Conservatory of Music,” he says. “I spent a long time performing in its orchestras and refining my knowledge of music theory and performance.”

By 21, Garcia-Fons was making his own mark, performing alongside some of the most renowned of jazz drummers in the world, including Kenny Clarke and Sam Woodyard, and winning national competitions.

“My attraction to the bass had been immediate, like a thunderbolt,” he remembers. “It was the ideal instrument to reach out to all the world music.”

With this in mind, Garcia-Fons started to explore all manners of genres.

“I decided to add a fifth string to my bass as this created more exciting musical possibilities than ever.”

Speaking about how his music has evolved, Garcia-Fons struggles to find the right words.

“It is frustrating to have to describe music in words,” he says with a smile.

“Words just bring labels and music deserves anything but. However, I suppose those who have listened to my music have tried to coin it and have found influences including Mediterranean music, flamenco, Afro Latin, jazz, classical and Eastern styles.

Now Garcia-Fons is thrilled to be performing as part of the Few Trio, an ensemble that is set to wow local audiences.

“Winsberg and Edouard are both big stars and world fusion music specialists. Together we have built a delightful repertoire that showcases the very best of all three of our musical instruments. I love the fact that our selection will give us plenty of opportunity for spontaneity and improvisation. This is, after all, a meeting of different musical backgrounds, so the results are bound to be lots of fun and completely unique every single time.”

The Few Trio will perform at Argotti Gardens, Floriana, tomorrow.

www.maltaartsfestival.org.