This meeting between jazz and our traditional music, offered for a third time on disc by Nicolas Boulerice, poet, singer and vivelle player of Vent du Nord, and double bassist Frédéric Samson (co-founder of the Small World Project), is not unheard of: in integrating a brass section and swing orchestrations into their ensemble in the 1990s, the smiling Bottine touched something divine. On Cool trad, rather we have the impression of remaining on the surface of things, the jazz argument employed in an ornamental manner without really revealing anything new from the songs collected on this generous album of more than 80 minutes. Contemplative album — indeed cool —, hushed ambiances giving rise to inspired bass lines, sometimes accompanied by an accordion solo or a hint of percussion; the songs, on the other hand, are worth their own, with or without jazz: at the heart of the record, California, Will And Humans (more blues than jazz, half recited, half sung) are precious.
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