Music: Airelle Besson, Louis Chedid… Five albums to end the year gently

► Airelle Besson’s lovely surprise

As a good jazz musician, Airelle Besson enjoys unexpected encounters which turn into complicity when the pleasure of playing together is immediately there. This is what happened in 2013 when the French trumpeter crossed paths with two colleagues from across the Rhine, the pianist Sebastian Sternal and the drummer Jonas Burgwinkel. Seven more years had to pass, punctuated by a few concerts, for the spontaneous trio to enter the studio and deliver this beautiful Surprise which has the freshness of the impromptu.

In addition to the sound of her aerial trumpet which she knows how to make people speak and sing at the same time, Airelle Besson brought into the common basket several compositions gleaned from her previous albums, including two very beautiful ballads, Lulea’s Sunset et Time To Say Goodbye. Sebastian Sternal was responsible for providing the other themes, including a delightful newscast over which the spirit of Brazilian Egberto Gismonti hovers. An album with invigorating charm.

► Shades bewitches vocal jazz

Young voices in harmony, swing tunes and a whole century of jazz which is spanned with grace by the group Shades. Antoine Laudière on guitar and musical direction, Étienne Quezel on bass clarinet and four vocalists, Pablo Campos, Elora Antolin, Ellinoa and Marion Chrétien cover legendary titles born from Broadway musicals or Harlem jazz clubs. The authors of Great American Songbook – George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Richard Rodgers – inspire this young French jazz band with four ranges and two instruments.

Shades’ first album, Blues Skiesgave rise to more than 70 concerts throughout France. The new opus, Whitchcraft overflows with tone and virtuosity. We retain the emotion of Saint James Infirmary Bluesa lament on the loss of a loved one, created in 1928 by Louis Armstrong, the brilliance of I Got Rythm by Gershwin, formerly performed by Judy Garland or Gene Kelly, or the punch of Sweet Georgia Brown sung in canon. With vibrant sensitivity, the sextet delivers an exceptional version of a nostalgic ballad founding in the American psyche, The Old Country : this song of exile written in 1923 is performed with beautiful vocal precision and welcome instrumental sobriety.

► Pierre Génisson, languorous clarinetist

In 2023, Pierre Génisson honored Mozart, by performing the Clarinet concerto from the author of The Magic Flute in his disk Mozart 1791 (Erato). The brilliant clarinetist, whose repertoire encompasses classical, contemporary music, jazz, folk and klezmer, also worked in 2017 on an album dedicated to Benny Goodman, the “king of swing”. On this occasion, he collaborated for the first time with the pianist, conductor and composer Bruno Fontaine, like him a former student of the Paris Conservatory. The two musicians find themselves with prestigious guests for an album that they wanted “intimate and relaxing”.

A cocoon of softness envelops this celebration of American standards and essential French songs, beginning with a languorous interpretation of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Jerome Kern. Monica Bellucci whispers I’ve Got You Under my Skin by Cole Porter, guitarist Thibault Garcia joins the set of Syracuse of Henri Salvador et de Smile by Chaplin. Two brilliant vocalists cut the lion’s share: Youn Sun Nah on The Javanese of Gainsbourg and Kimberose, with the vibrato of his beautiful range on What a Wonderful World. As Pierre Génisson says: “What’s more soothing than a familiar melody whispered into your ear like a personal message? »

► Louis Chedid, between dream and tenderness

Louis Chedid, according to his comrade François Morel, is “ a faithful companion, an inspired friend who comes to bring courage, colors to the grayness of time, reasons to hope and the happiness of a new opus, reassuring, luminous. In the hearts of the French, he remains the singer-songwriter of unforgettable songs, written over forty years: Hold-up, Beauty, You may not be beautiful, So be it…

His new album Dreamer, Dreamer is in the vein of these tender and deep songs which speak of us as much as of him. A tube with a fluid melody, The Beats of the Heart opens and closes this disc which also carries I am here, a comforting ballad, or even My soul and I, at a dancing tempo. Louis Chedid surrounded himself with talents, including three family members, Emma and Anna (Nach) in the choirs, Matthieu (-M-) on guitar and banjo. He once again chooses the clear line to accompany his times.

► Homage to the gods of Fidel Fourneyron

Is it because he didn’t have the equivalent of a Miles Davis for the trumpet or a John Coltrane for the saxophone? The trombone, without being shunned, is not the instrument of choice for jazz musicians today. Fortunately, he has brilliant followers, of whom Fidel Fourneyron is one of the most notable representatives. In his trio album entitled Abouthe pays a dancing homage to the orishas, ​​the Yoruba deities to whom West African slaves continued to pray in their cruel exiles across the Atlantic.

In addition to these consoling gods, the manes of great jazz elders, such as saxophonist Sonny Rollins and double bassist Charles Mingus, hover over the compositions and arrangements of Fidel Fourneyron whose tempos navigate between the Caribbean and New Orleans. The vibrant double bass of Thibaud Soulas and the constantly moving drums of Antoine Paganotti are essential elements in the success of this spicy opus.