Antonio Faraò & Stéphane Belmondo – Do It!

The release of a new album by Stéphane Belmondo is never a trivial event. The trumpeter and flugelhornist—who clearly has more than one breath in his bag—continues to surprise, with the brilliance of his playing and the stylish turns of his musical affinities, here alongside pianist Antonio Faraò.

A voluble yet never excessive phrasing, endings reminiscent of Tom Harrell, the glow and depth of the flugelhorn—these are the unmistakable hallmarks of this master of the embouchure. A sound that grows ever more mature, a constantly renewed excellence in improvisation, all in service of an encounter with an eloquent pianist: this is the perfect follow-through to the promise he had already fulfilled with his partner Kirk Lightsey.

Surrounded by longtime companions—Thomas Bramerie on double bass and Benjamin Henocq on drums—the ensemble is, of course, elevated by the presence of Antonio Faraò, not only at the piano but also in the writing.

“Timeless contemporaneity” is the perfect oxymoron to describe this collection of performances—a jazz that embraces tradition in order to reinvent it, almost like a metonymic figure (“Melancholy of Rita”). A sharply etched bass line rides a drum pulse that surfaces with each note, a subtle relaunch serving the surprising effect of a fractured enharmonic language (“Around”).

To all this is added the mastery of a keyboardist who never reins in his ideas, equally at home in classical rigor and in the exploration of unexpected sonic territories, guided by an evident musical complicity (“Do It!”).

Nine tracks that shape the atmosphere of a jazz quartet whose orchestral vision already marks it, in my view, as quartet of the year.

A work of great class, both in conception and interpretation, its proof lying in a musical jubilation that goes far beyond mere instrumental performance. A truly fine release—one that calls for more to come.