Alain Jean-Marie, Diego imbert - Ballads (2025) [Hi-Res]

Five years ago, pianist Alain Jean-Marie and double bassist Diego Imbert teamed up for the first time to revive the spirit of the duo formed in the 70s by the brilliant Bill Evans and Eddy Gomez (see **Intuition** and **Montreux III**). They recorded a magnificent tribute album, **Interplay**, composed entirely of tunes from the American's usual repertoire.

Today, they are back again, this time exploring a selection of eleven timeless ballads ranging from Hoagy Carmichael's great standards of the 30s (**Stardust**, **Skylark**, **The Nearness of You**) to Charlie Haden's sublime "modern classic" **First Song**. The album also features more intimate pieces like Benny Carter's **Summer Serenade** and Tommy Wolf's poignant **Spring Can really Hang You Up The Most**.

In the style of an intimate, rambling conversation, the two musicians delve into the heart of these well-known melodies, exploring their harmonic subtleties without ever venturing into excessive virtuosity. Instead, they embrace a refined and "super-classicist" approach, competing with each other in precision and subtlety. With a rich and delicate phrasing deeply rooted in the **bop** idiom, Alain Jean-Marie and Diego Imbert serve an art of slowness, understatement, and suggestion—an art of great expressive power and paradoxical modernity.

© Stéphane Ollivier

Tracklist:
1-1 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - Stardust [3:38]
1-2 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - If You Could See Me Now [4:45]
1-3 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - First Song [4:25]
1-4 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - My Ideal [3:19]
1-5 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - The Nearness of you [3:59]
1-6 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - Summer Serenade [3:56]
1-7 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - My One and Only Love [3:33]
1-8 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing [3:48]
1-9 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - Skylark [3:20]
1-10 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most [4:35]
1-11 Alain Jean-Marie;Diego imbert - Laura [4:24]