Stephane Belmondo

Pianist Jacky Terrasson's 2012 album Gouache is an eclectic, playful, and often beautiful album that showcases the pianist's lithe, technically adept jazz skills alongside a handful of guest artists. Terrasson is a gifted composer and improviser in a variety of jazz idioms, from straight-ahead, standards-based jazz to more contemporary and even avant-garde styles. He brings all of this to bear on Gouache. While Terrasson's virtuosic piano chops are the focal point of the release, it is also his choice of excellent sidemen here, including trumpeter Stephane Belmondo and bass clarinetist Michel Portal, that helps make the album such a buoyant and joyful listen.

Accompanied by the cream of French jazz (Eric Legnini, Stéphane Belmondo …), guitarist and singer Thomas Curbillon unveils an irresistible first album, which connects happy and tender lyrics with the richness of solos, in a disc with mischievous lyrics, adorned with sumptuous arrangements… Enamelled with nods to Salvador, Aznavour and Nougaro, “Place Ste-Opportune” reconciles French song with swing. So French, so jazz! There was a time when jazz made the java. Carried by the magnificent piano of Eric Legnini, the double bass of Thomas Bramerie and the drums of Antoine Paganotti, who put heart into this work, Thomas Curbillon took pleasure in inviting the trumpeter Stéphane Belmondo to illuminate a few solo -some of his pieces.

Laurent Cugny & Orchestre National de Jazz - In Tempo (1996) {Verve 532 438-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 340 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 135 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 35 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1996 Verve / PhonoGram / PolyGram | 532 438-2
Jazz / Modern Big Band / Contemporary Jazz / Progressive Jazz

Produced by Laurent Cugny and Daniel Richard for L'orchestre National de Jazz. Laurent Cugny - Bandleader. Ranks alongside George Gruntz as prime European contemporary composer, leader. His large orchestra is remniscent of Gil Evans big band in final stages; his pieces have quirky, unpredictable quality, as do his recordings.

Louis Sclavis’s 13th ECM recording finds the French clarinetist drawing inspiration from two sources – the street art of Ernest Pignon-Ernest, and the interpretive originality of a splendid new quartet. Pignon-Ernest’s works were previously the subject of Sclavis’s highly acclaimed 2002 recording Napoli’s Walls. This time Sclavis looks at a broader range of the artist’s in situ collages from Ramallah to Rome, in search of “a dynamic, a movement that will give birth to a rhythm, an emotion, a song.”

With every passing year, pianist Omar Sosa continues to define what contemporary world music can be. Each effort is quite different than the previous one, while the bright colors, timbres, and elements of his Cuban-based music are elevated higher and higher. In his restlessness to find further truth and beauty, there's a calm serenity and unabashed confidence in his vision and personal musicianship.