Matthieu Chedid Mama Sam

For the follow-up of his ECM-leader-debut La traversée, French saxophonist Matthieu Bordenave expands his trio of German pianist Florian Weber and French bassist Patrice Moret with the unique sensibilities of drummer James Maddren, whose unrelenting pulse adds deft counterpoint to the group’s already idiosyncratic sound. Besides the soulfully angular rendering of John Coltrane’s “Compassion”, the quartet tackles eight Bordenave-originals that bridge the gap between chamber-jazz dynamics and post-swing designs. Weber and Bordenave’s oblique approach to their instruments – Bordenave can be heard on both tenor and soprano sax – coalesce seamlessly, spinning unanticipated lines over a highly interactive rhythm section. The Blue Land was recorded in Pernes-Les-Fontaines in 2022, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Back with a newly formed quintet, gathered together for a particularly fruitful 2024 session in Southern France, the German pianist Benjamin Lackner presents a different and exciting side of his composer-approach. Trumpeter Mathias Eick is the sole returnee from Lackner’s debut Last Decade, and can be heard in striking dualism with Mark Turner’s idiosyncratic saxophone dialect, forming a key-characteristic of the interplay that permeates Spindrift. The horn-duo and pianist are joined by the nonpareil bassist Linda May Han Oh and French drummer Matthieu Chazarenc, who was part of Lackner’s trio before the pianist’s tenure with ECM. Subtle fanfares meet contemplative lyricism in a programme of originals that always puts melody and ensemble chemistry first. Saxophone and trumpet take the lead, forming their own little ensemble section, and contribute elegantly interwoven lines and striking solos to an especially harmonious group sound and a tuneful set of songs. The album was produced by Manfred Eicher.

Pierre Gallon and Matthieu Boutineau offer us an opportunity to rediscover Couperin’s Concerts Royaux in a version for two harpsichords, a rare combination, yet one of which the composer to the Sun King was especially fond. Here is an interpretation at once brilliant and moving of these works full of tenderness, gaiety and invention, a veritable stylistic turning point between the twilight of the Grand Siècle and the dawn of the Enlightenment.

Algeria-born bassist Michel Benita, long a mainstay of the French jazz scene, introduces his revised quartet. Swiss flugelhornist Matthieu Michel and French drummer Philippe Garcia are retained from Benita’s Ethics band, and the quartet is completed by Belgian keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin. Dumoulin’s swirling, floating sounds and colours - he sounds like no other Fender Rhodes player - have inspired Benita to write evocative new music for the group. The repertoire also includes a bewitching cover version of Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Inutil Paisagem”, the freely improvised "Cloud To Cloud", and a touching solo bass interpretation of Jule Styne’s “Never Never Land”. Looking At Sounds was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in March 2019.

A Time To Remember is a continuation of the special synergy that inhabited Elina Duni’s acclaimed Lost Ships and finds her regrouping with that album’s quartet of guitarist Rob Luft, Matthieu Michel on flugelhorn and Fred Thomas on percussion and piano. As the title suggests, the notion of ‘time’ pulls through the programme like a theme, connecting music from different parts of the world – traditionals, popular songs and original compositions – in performances of deep lyricism but also fleet-footed folklore. The repertory spans Albanian and Kosovan traditionals, American songs like the Broadway classic “I’ll Be Seeing You” and Stephen Sondheim’s musical ballad “Send In The Clowns” as well as originals by Rob and Elina. Commenting on the group’s last effort, Jazzwise said that “the sum of Duni and Luft’s work together seems greater than their individual achievements, where concept and conceptualisation have combined to produce a classic.” A Time To Remember should confirm that proposition and further expands on the qualities explored previously.