Did you know ‘Jazz’ comes from the word orgasm?”
Benoit Viellefon, one quarter of live music’s most avant-garde band, has made me blush already. I’m sitting with the Frenchman and his fellow frontman, Sean MacGloin, who has ordered a whisky on the rocks in my office building’s cafeteria at three in the afternoon – he’s a New Yorker from the Bronx, after all. Wun Chan Yen on the bass and John McCarthy on the drums, not present, complete the fourman band that is Ta Mère (French for “your mother”).

Much like fashion does, Ta Mère is looking back in time, bringing a 1920s Louis Armstrong energy to our generation. Swing, jazz, folk, blues – these guys are going against the establishment and getting back to the basics of good music. The kind of music that we all tap our feet to and grab a dance partner for. “People go mad for it, even if they’re posh,” says Sean, who, quite endearingly, confesses that “this is the band I’ve been looking for all my life.” The band resembles a sort of swingers’ “rat pack”. Their style is 100 per cent tailored – head to toe classic suits, with hats designed by Sean’s personal friend Philip Treacy – with an unmistakable swagger that is lacking in most modern acts of the industry.

So how does a live touring band stay alive in this climate? “Great music has always been played during hard times. During a recession, music is the one thing that uplifts people and reminds them of the good times.” In fact, live gigs are precisely what is paying the bills at the moment for Ta Mère. With residencies in both corners of London – Ginglik in the west (catch them on the 31 October, ginglik.co.uk) and the Brickhouse on Brick Lane in the east – Ta Mère’s following is growing fast. “It’s coming back in style to bring your girl to a jazz café and order cognac,” says Sean, formerly

a music lawyer for the mainstream record companies, many of which are wondering what to do with themselves in the current digital music market.

" Swing, jazz, folk, blues– These guys are going against the establishment and getting back to basics of good music"

“We’re shooting bullets in the right place and hitting the right target,” says feisty Frenchman Benoit. Ta Mère has its own record label, run by Benoit since 1999. With JohnJohnRecords behind them, the group has full artistic control and can do exactly what they like – “hijacking jazz”. Benoit plans to have an album available on iTunes by November of next year. But you can tell that going digital is not priority for the live band. Linking music with technology almost feels unnatural when speaking with the musicians of Ta Mère. I fail to believe that listening to them on your iPod would have the same effect as witnessing the irresistible thumping of a live bass and the excitement an entire audience jiving. “We play popular music,” Benoit says confidently and casually.” There is no argument here. Ta Mère is nostalgic, revolutionary, romantic, certainly swinging and making a considerable amount of noise.

Fronted by firey singing Frenchman Benoit Viellefon and American/Cuban violinist Sean MacGloin, the innovative group stole the show as Matchbox party-goers grooved to the sound of gypsy swing, French Bal Musette, Russian and Balkan traditionals, Cuban, Tango, Blues and Jazz. "We're using a popular and traditional recipe that works. This is not music that goes out of fashion, this is music that has people are responding naturally to it every time," said Benoit casually as he came off the stage from his electric performance. The audience was transported to another era of music powered by legends such as Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaf and George Gershwin.