Jean-Loup Longnon – Istanbounce

Jean-Loup Longnon invites us to a veritable jazz feast with a full orchestra.

A feast in keeping with the musician’s natural fondness of food : over an hour and a quarter of music to savor without tiring of the orchestra’s varied, rich and heady sonic flavors. For while Longnon is the arranger of the entire repertoire – as well as the leader – he is also its principal composer.

And the themes he doesn’t sign are of a welcome variety, ranging from Gershwin to Boris Vian, from Sammy Nestico to Billy Strayhorn, from Gilbert Bécaud to Miles Davis.

The orchestra is clearly the instrument that Longnon – a major trumpet player in his own right – brings to the fore, and he makes it sound both subtle and joyful, in a vein that ranges from 1940s classicism to the refinement of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis orchestra.

There’s no attempt at modernism here, but rather a clear commitment to tradition, which Longnon continues with a fervour and savoir-faire that leaves you breathless, and is bound to win over any jazz lover with a passion for swing and sound. Longnon‘s arrangements unfold a shimmering, abundant palette of sound, where instrumental timbres are magnificently enhanced by a jubilant rhythmic pulse, and instrumental solos gush forth like melodious, inventive fountains of youth.

This taste for song is particularly evident in the themes where the voice intervenes, but in fact it permeates the entire opus, as each soloist masters the art of telling a story, supported by a remarkably dense cantabile orchestral sound mass. Listening to this CD leaves you with a smile of contentment and a deep sense of well-being. Who could fail to appreciate such a festive, heartfelt musical potion?