Shooting Star–Étoile Filante (Alternate Side Records)
Ryan Keberle / Reverse
Released January 19, 2024
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2024
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About:
The music of this album is inspired in various ways by the seminal French composer, Lili Boulanger, and her astoundingly beautiful music. Lili Boulanger’s musical accomplishments have yet to receive the universal celebration they deserve and this album looks to highlight her deeply compelling and inspiring music.
Special thanks to Villa Albertine, French American Cultural Exchange Foundation, The French Ministry of Culture, and Institut Français, who generously supported the making of this album through a Villa Albertine Jazz and New Music Grant.
Track Listing:
1. La Muse (Ryan Keberle) 04:43
2. Obstination (Frank Woeste) 03:49
3. Resilience (Frank Woeste) 05:20
4. Nocturne (Ryan Keberle) 04:54
5. Ma Jolie (Vincent Courtois) 04:52
6. En Avant (Frank Woeste) 04:55
7. Requiem (Frank Woeste) 07:07
8. Shine (Ryan Keberle) 05:12
9. Lili’s Blues (Frank Woeste) 02:19
10. Dernier Moteur (Vincent Courtois) 04:09
Personnel:
Frank Woeste: piano
Ryan Keberle: trombone, voice
Vincent Courtois: cello
Recorded April 4-7, 2023, at Studio Sextan, Paris France
Produced by Ryan Keberle, Frank Woeste and Vincent Courtois
Engineered, Mixed and Mastered by Erwan Bouley
Photography by Maxime de Bollivier
Album design by Ktu Meza
Review:
An international collaboration between American trombonist Ryan Keberle, German-born pianist Frank Woeste, and French cellist Vincent Courtois, Reverso has carved out a distinctive niche in the broader musical landscape, blending modern jazz traditions with sounds informed by 20th century classical composers. Past albums have found them drawing inspiration from the music of composers like Maurice Ravel and Gabriel Fauré. Recorded in Paris, 2024’s Shooting Star–Étoile Filante finds the group turning their attention to the languidly beautiful work of French composer Lili Boulanger. Born in 1893, Boulanger was known for her transitional style that bridged the classic work of her predecessor Fauré with the impressionist style associated with composers like Claude Debussy. She also suffered poor health and died young at the age of 24. Perhaps not surprisingly, her melodies are often imbued with a sense of loneliness and sadness. It’s a style that’s perfectly suited to Reverso’s own brand of cross-genre jazz and classical music. However, rather than simply interpreting Boulanger’s music, they use it as a jumping-off point, crafting their own deeply nuanced compositions. The album opens with “La Muse,” a lilting song where the trio’s trombone, piano, and cello lines tenderly overlap like the colorful brushstrokes on a Claude Monet painting. It’s a relaxing quality they return to on other hypnotic, evocatively titled chamber pieces like “Resilience,” “Nocturne,” and “Shine.” Some tracks are more classical in tone, like “Obstination,” where the trio push and pull against each other, contrasting swooning melodies and harrumphing, argumentative counterpoint. More specifically jazz in tone is “Lili’s Blues,” a slowly swinging number where they trade twangy, laconic riffs like Duke Ellington’s band in a sleepy after-hours jam session — or, more improbably, as if Boulanger had composed a piece to sound like Ellington’s band playing a sleepy blues. It’s that sort of vividly poetic inspiration that one hears in Boulanger’s own work and which Keberle and Reverso display throughout all of Shooting Star–Étoile Filante.
Matt Collar (AllMusic)
