Lilananda Jazz Quintet - Phares (2021)

After the album Dancing Joy and the Bossa 2.0 project, the quintet, under the direction of Pierre Drevet, returns to its repertoire of compositions with this new album. The texts are by Claire Vaillant who continues her experimentation around the use of French in jazz. The pieces are composed and arranged by Pierre Drevet for the quintet consisting of the association guitar / bass / drums / trumpet / vocals.

The Lilananda collective was founded in 2003 to build bridges between jazz and Brazilian music, hence the album "Bossa 2.0" which brought together French trumpeter Pierre Drevet and vocalist Claire Vaillant, with the Varese Quartet. Among the collective's projects, there is this “Lilananda Jazz Quintet” which brings together, in addition to Pierre Drevet and Claire Vaillant, Frédéric Larue on guitar, Etienne Kermarc on bass and Fabien Rodriguez on drums and percussions. We had already been able to discover the very beautiful osmosis between Pierre Drevet's trumpet and the undulating voice of Claire Vaillant on the album "Echange" recorded in 2020 with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra (reviewed at the time). Pierre Drevet is a trumpeter of great experience: he was part of the National Jazz Orchestra of Laurent Cugny, of the Jazz Ensemble of Patrice Caratini and has been part, for 18 years, of the BJO in which he is one of the main soloists and a subtle arranger. Claire Vaillant is a self-taught vocalist who greatly admires the work of Norma Winstone in osmosis with Kenny Wheeler, hence the album "Sometime Suite" to music by Kenny Wheeler, an album which will be followed by "The Road to You", dedicated to Pat Metheny. In Pierre Drevet, Claire Vaillant has found the ideal accomplice. The singing of the trumpet blends wonderfully with the undulations of the voice, used as an instrument in its own right.

For the album "Phares", Pierre Drevet composed 7 original music, including "Exchange" which appears on the album engraved with the BJO. Claire Vaillant wrote the texts: six in French, one in English (“Quasar”). Complete the repertoire, in a nod to Brazilian music, "Chovendo na roseira", a composition by Tom Jobim sung in Portuguese, on an arrangement by Pierre Drevet, with the contribution of a string quartet led by Johan Véron . Whether she sings the lyrics written for the music of Pierre Drevet or embarks on sinuous vocals, Claire Vaillant perfectly matches the singing of the shimmering trumpet or the fluffy sounding bugle. In addition, the texts of Claire Vaillant have a real poetic scope inscribed in the present: Daughter of the desert, born beyond the seas / Daughter of the desert, of wind and light / During your journey, oh beautiful Aicha / Miraculee de war and shipwrecks / Child you ran free on the sand / But the life of desert women is fragile ("Aicha"). Or again: A thousand voices that we do not hear / Of those that do not count / These strong and joyful voices of a warrior from here below / Of those that we meet and whose battles we can guess (" Sirius ”). The beauty of the texts joins that of the luminous music of Pierre Drevet.