COULEURS JAZZ MONTH – THE BEST OF JUNE 2026

More than a tribute, Oracles is an act of musical gratitude and transmission. For her first big band recording, Helen Sung honours the mentors who shaped her artistic journey at the Thelonious Monk Institute: Clark Terry, Ron Carter, Jimmy Heath, Wayne Shorter, Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, Herbie Hancock, and Sir Roland Hanna.

Each composition paints a musical portrait without resorting to imitation. Through richly crafted writing and sophisticated orchestration, Helen Sung reveals the full scope of her gifts as both composer and arranger. Her big band unfolds an impressive range of colours, balancing vibrant swing, harmonic depth, and compelling storytelling.

Both deeply personal and boldly ambitious, Oracles celebrates the enduring values of jazz: generosity, collective expression, and creative freedom. A striking large-ensemble debut that firmly establishes Helen Sung among the most distinctive composers of her generation.

Bellflower is jazz that actually says something. This Japanese trumpeter builds his albums like novels, each composition leading naturally into the next, each piece a chapter in a larger story. You do not dip in and out of Bellflower. You go through it.

His language is rooted in post-bop but regularly moves toward more open territory: folk, Americana, those American musics that carry within them a certain landscape melancholy. Melody is always present, never sacrificed on the altar of complexity. Iida knows where he is going, and he takes his time getting there. No rushing, no gratuitous display, just the quiet conviction that atmosphere matters as much as the note itself.

Around him are musicians who have understood the project and play accordingly, with the restraint of people who know that silence is part of the music and that the space between notes is not emptiness but breath. The whole album holds together from start to finish with a coherence that does not come easily.

Introspective without being closed, cinematic without being illustrative, Bellflower is the work of a composer who transforms personal experience into something universal. Someone who has things to say and knows how to say them. That is rare. It deserves attention.

The piano trio has long been one of jazz’s most demanding formats, and with Life Letters, Vincent Bourgeyx reminds us why. Joined by bassist Darryl Hall and drummer Gregory Hutchinson, the French pianist embraces the trio as a space for interaction, spontaneity, and shared musical exploration.

Vincent Bourgeyx‘s writing strikes a natural balance between harmonic sophistication and melodic clarity. His compositions provide strong foundations for improvisation without restricting the musicians’ freedom. The trio’s chemistry is evident throughout, supported by a remarkably flexible rhythm section and a sense of swing that never feels forced or showy. Rooted in the acoustic jazz tradition, the music speaks with a voice that is both personal and contemporary.

Recorded with admirable restraint, Life Letters allows every nuance to emerge naturally. Rather than showcasing virtuosity for its own sake, Vincent Bourgeyx creates an album where sound, space, and silence become essential parts of the musical conversation. A mature and finely crafted recording that celebrates the enduring art of the piano trio.

A defining figure in modern jazz, Steve Swallow returns as a leader with Winter Songs, his first album under his own name in more than a decade. Remaining true to a musical language where melody always comes before display, the bassist and composer brings together a trusted ensemble featuring Mike Rodriguez, Chris Cheek, Gil Goldstein, Steve Cardenas, and Adam Nussbaum.

Across nine original compositions, the music favours nuance, space, and lyrical expression over technical exhibition. Melodies move effortlessly between horns, piano, and guitar, while Steve Swallow, characteristically understated, anchors the ensemble without seeking the spotlight. The result is a warm, deeply conversational sound shaped by subtle swing and an almost chamber-like sense of interaction.

Recorded for ECM, Winter Songs perfectly reflects the label’s unmistakable aesthetic while remaining unmistakably Steve Swallow‘s own. With writing of remarkable clarity and emotional depth, he reminds us that lasting beauty often lies in restraint. A graceful and deeply rewarding recording from one of jazz’s most distinctive musical voices.

Once is a pleasant surprise; twice begins to tell a story. After first introducing us to Mike Clement some time ago, Guillaume Lagrée, a longtime friend of Couleurs Jazz, once again encouraged the guitarist to send us his new album, Polka Dots and Ray Bans. It proved to be an excellent recommendation, confirming everything we had previously admired about his music.

Deeply rooted in the jazz tradition, Mike Clement delivers an album where bebop, swing, blues, soul, and the unmistakable grooves of New Orleans come together with remarkable ease. Supported by an outstanding cast featuring Leroy Jones, Miles Berry, Connor Stewart, Julian Lee, Gerald Watkins Jr., and Tris Duncan, the guitarist places collective musicianship at the heart of the project. His original compositions provide an ideal setting for inspired improvisation while maintaining a strong melodic identity and impressive overall cohesion.

At a time when many projects rely on concepts to make an impression, Polka Dots and Ray Bans reminds us that the essence of great jazz remains unchanged: memorable melodies, irresistible swing, thoughtful arrangements, and musicians playing with honesty and conviction. A warm, vibrant recording that firmly establishes Mike Clement among today’s most compelling jazz guitarists.

Barely a year after its formation, the Salma Quartet embodies the energy and creativity of a new generation emerging from Marseille’s vibrant jazz scene. Led by pianist and composer Salma Blanchard, the quartet draws on the legacy of bebop and modern jazz while developing a distinctive voice shaped by strong writing, collective interaction, and adventurous improvisation.

Joined by Antoine Lucchini (with Matthieu Fabre featured on the album), France Duclairoir, and Antoine-Aurèle Cohen-Perrot, Salma Blanchard balances original compositions with imaginative arrangements of lesser-known standards. Inspired by artists such as Bill Evans, Michel Petrucciani, Brad Mehldau, and Emmet Cohen, the music combines melodic clarity with a refreshing sense of freedom.

As the debut recording from a band formed in 2024, Loin du désordre already reveals impressive maturity and a strong collective identity. A promising first release that highlights both the quartet’s potential and the remarkable vitality of Marseille’s contemporary jazz scene.

Médéric Collignon put Camus, Mandela, and Einstein in a hip-hop album. And it works. Hip-Hop ! Tout Samplement is exactly the kind of project you did not see coming, and once it arrives, it feels completely inevitable.

The French cornetist has never been one to stay put. Miles Davis, King Crimson, film music: Collignon has always looked elsewhere for what jazz alone could not give him. This time, he brings in hip-hop. Not to dress it up or pay it lip service, but to extract its essence and make it talk to his own language. Grooves, samples, and rhythms rooted in that culture interweave with improvisation and arrangements of unexpected richness.

And through it all, those voices. Camus, Mandela, Chaplin, Einstein: iconic twentieth-century speeches woven into the music as if they had always belonged there. Collignon does not use them as gimmicks. He turns them into instruments.

The story behind this album is worth telling. Originally planned for 2019 and delayed by Covid, the record almost never came out at all. During the wait, Collignon kept writing, creating Arsis Thesis, a world-music project that pushed the hip-hop album even further into uncharted territory. A long road, navigated without support. And at the end of it, something so singular it surprised a New York cab driver: “surprised that a white guy could make this music sound like that,” Collignon recalls. The best review he could have received.

Jazz has always absorbed the music of its time. Hip-Hop ! Tout Samplement makes that case with a freedom and boldness that feels genuinely alive. A fearless record from someone who is clearly afraid of nothing.

Bèlè did not wait for jazz to exist. Hervé Celcal makes that clear. Ti Piman is a duo album, piano and drums, nothing else, that claims an identity rather than simply blending genres. Martinican music is not decorative here. It is the foundation.

Hervé Celcal is no stranger to the Couleur Jazz Radio team. This Martinican pianist has a habit of winning us over, and Ti Piman is no exception. Built around a duo with drummer Tilo Bertholo, the album asserts a genuine musical identity rather than offering a simple fusion of styles. Hervé Celcal builds his compositions from Caribbean traditions, Creole rhythms, and bèlè, allowing them to evolve through contemporary writing without betraying them. His piano shifts between percussive and lyrical, grounded and free, moving within a few bars from the warmth of an Antillean melody to the complexity of a fully contemporary jazz language.

Opposite him, Tilo Bertholo does far more than accompany: he converses, responds, pushes, surprises. His drumming is inventive, nourished equally by Creole rhythms and modern jazz, and his contributions give each piece a unique quality of breath and movement. The duo plays with an organic intensity that belongs only to musicians who have something to defend together, something that goes beyond performance.

No bass, no additional harmony: every silence carries weight, every accent becomes a colour. That economy of means does not reduce the music. It concentrates it, makes it denser, more direct. Eight original compositions driven by groove, improvisation, and an emotion that lands every time. The melodies are often luminous, carried by a rhythmic architecture whose sophistication only reveals itself on close listening.

Ti Piman is demanding and immediately alive. Deeply Martinican, deeply jazz, deeply personal. An album that deserves to be heard well beyond the Creole jazz circle.

A band called Green Dolphin can only play bebop. And that is exactly what Patrick Billion on piano, Arnaud Gobin on bass, and Julien Querbes on drums do. One For The Road is their album: warm, generous, and rooted in the great tradition of the acoustic piano trio.

The repertoire moves between standards, bossa nova, and a handful of original compositions. Ellington, Parker, Gillespie, Henderson, Jarrett, Zawinul, Stevie Wonder: references felt throughout without ever locking the trio into a museum aesthetic. Swing and melody remain the guiding principles, carried by a mutual attentiveness that always takes precedence over display.

One For The Road is also a title that captures the album’s spirit perfectly: that last drink before leaving, the one you savour most. A record that proves, once again, that bop and hard bop have lost none of their expressive force or power of seduction. The Couleurs Jazz team, who have always had a particular affection for this aesthetic, knew exactly what they were getting.

Guitarists are definitely having their moment this month. Following Mike Clement, Bruno Bongarçon steps forward with God Bless the Child, a deeply personal and ambitious project: a reinterpretation of one of Kenny Burrell‘s significant albums, recorded in 1971, that reveals new colours without betraying its spirit.

Kenny Burrell is a living legend. Born in Detroit in 1931, he is one of the last direct witnesses of the golden age of bebop and modern jazz. He played alongside the greatest: John Coltrane, Gil Evans, Jimmy Smith, Oscar Peterson, and Duke Ellington himself, who considered Burrell his ideal guitarist. A career spanning more than seventy years, a tone instantly recognisable, a sense of melody and blues that belongs to him alone. Now in his nineties, his influence continues to shape the jazz of today.

It is this legacy that Bruno Bongarçon approaches with both reverence and creative freedom. One of the most sought-after session guitarists on the French scene and a discreet but essential figure in French jazz, he delivers here one of the most personal projects of his career. To bring it to life, he assembles an outstanding ensemble: guitar, rhythm section, and a remarkable cello quintet, with arrangements by Pierre Bertrand that open the music toward unexpected territory between jazz, chamber music, and cinematic atmosphere.

The result makes no attempt to recreate the original. Instead it uncovers new nuances, carried by performances that are elegant and deeply expressive. God Bless the Child celebrates both Burrell‘s legacy and the timeless power of great melody. A refined album that deserves to be widely discovered.

Depuis près de dix ans, le Zoot Collectif s’impose comme l’un des ensembles les plus créatifs de la scène jazz française. Avec Bagages en Zoot, son tout nouveau Big Band poursuit cette aventure en renouant avec la grande tradition du swing et du bebop, dans l’esprit des orchestres de Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Neal Hefti ou Woody Herman, tout en privilégiant des compositions originales.

Porté par seize musiciens parmi les plus talentueux de leur génération et dirigé par le trompettiste Noé Codjia, l’ensemble affiche une énergie communicative, une précision redoutable et un véritable plaisir de jouer ensemble. Un album qui confirme la vitalité du jazz orchestral français et dont nous reparlerons plus en détail dès réception du dossier de presse.