We will not go so far as to say that BEARS follow and look alike. However, with this third meeting, after a first album in 2018, then a Dance the following year – without forgetting, moreover, a Litany of the peaks in a trio with chamber colors – Clement Janinet seems determined to get used to the best, which no one can blame him for. It is not useless to recall the concept which underlies the music of this formation led by that which one had been able to know in other times within Radiation 10: “The name of the group (and of the disc), Ornette Under The Repetitive Skies, reveals the main influences that come out of the music I want to play, which are the jazz of the 60s, free jazz, Ornette Coleman representing all this musical current. On another side, The Repetitive Skies it’s all American minimalist music (Steve Reich, John Adams). The idea was to land at the meeting of these two worlds » [1]. To which we will add the particular circumstances of the confinement of 2020 which prompted the violinist (also a mandolinist, which is not so common after all) to dive back into various key recordings of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s: the last discs of John Coltrane, all those of Pharoah Sanders, but also of Alice Coltrane and her A Journey In Satchidananda. We can also highlight the setting of the recording, the BMC Studio in Budapest, a vast place conducive to restoring a climate close to that which Clément Janinet wanted, in the manner of the recordings of the time on the Vogue or Columbia labels.
No doubt these landmarks count for a lot in the feeling of a real spirituality that inhabits each of the compositions on the disc. This is particularly true for the two long themes of the disc (more than 13 minutes each) and their skilfully arranged scenarios in the manner of crossings from which one emerges as dazzled. The repetitive motif of “3rd Meditation” takes you on a slow immersion in meditative colors, before the tenor saxophone ofHugues Mayot (masterful from beginning to end) launches a heartbreaking free call to better then mingle his voice with that of the violin. Just as powerful is the vibration of “Purple Blues” whose first four minutes look like a mystical ceremony (a nod to Alice Coltrane) which will open wide the doors of a deep blues. Either a new playground for the saxophonist and the onslaught of drumsEmmanuel Scarpa of which we know the power of the imagination. Always present, in the background or crossing his voice with that of his partners, Clément Janinet is rarely a soloist. We can be grateful to him for leaving all the necessary space to his partners in developing the playing of an ensemble within which the double bass of Joachim Florent takes an important melodic part (in particular with the bow), agreeing to some decisive interventions (his solo on “Ouagadougou”, for example). OURS also knows how to settle down, take the time to express itself in soft and contemplative melodies, even pushing its explorations as far as Africa. Like the one undertaken alongside the Cameroonian Zé Jam Afanecomposer and singer of “Odibi” in (poignant) conclusion of the disc.
Let’s not cut corners: if its very dated influences are explicit, Ornette Under The Repetitive Skies III is never a backward-looking record. It is already presenting itself as one of the most exciting albums of the year, of those whose richness and refinements we do not seem to have to exhaust in two or three listenings. If today it is sometimes fashionable to get dizzy in certain “dance floor” forms of contemporary jazz – there is something for everyone – we will not forget to appeal to the requirement of another type of trance. A little more cerebral certainly, with a little less perspiration, but possible support for an awareness that will never be superfluous in our uncertain times.