Pierre Colin, Kenny Wollesen and Ned Fern, Neil Young and Promise of The Real, BKO

• Pierre Collin
  Masses and Motets

Pierre Colin: Missa Estans assis, Magnificat Septimi Toni, Missa Ava gloriosa and a selection of motets. La Note Brève, Simon Gallot (bass and direction).

Born ten years after Claude Lejeune, whose influence spanned the centuries to influence Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Colin (1538-1572) did not experience the same posthumous fortune. If the name of this representative of the French Renaissance designates a street in Autun (Saône-et-Loire), not far from the cathedral where he exercised the functions of cantor, it appears for the first time on the pediment of a disc with the very careful monograph dedicated to him by the ensemble La Note Brève, a vocal quintet at ease with colorful polyphonies. Of the two masses on the program, the Missa Estans seated seems the most accessible to today’s listener, through an expressive subject that is always evident. More ornate but as elegant as the Magnificat, the motets will appeal more to specialists. Interpreted on the organ, a song of youth completes this overview to allow us, explains the notice, “to imagine the old Kapellmeister at the end of his career”. Old ? Pierre Colin died at 34. Pierre Gervasoni

1 CD Paraty.

• Kenny Wollesen and Ned Fern
  Heart in Hand

With its melodies which have in common their clarity in writing, the album Heart in Hand, recorded by a quartet led by Kenny Wollesen and Ned Fern, leads into a series of tranquil musical landscapes. The two Americans, multi-instrumentalists, Wollesen on drums, keyboards, vibraphone, and Fern on saxophone, flute, clarinet, violin and keyboards, are accompanied by two Danes, guitarist Rune Kjeldsen and bassist Anders Christensen. All in an attention to the overall sound, to create subtle links in the game between jazz improvisation and composition. Six are by Wollesen (short hovering interludes and the title theme), five by Fern (including Barn Dance and Finding Dorian), the disk starting and ending with a standard, respectively Sonnyboy and Oh, What A Beautiful Morning. From the whole emerges a constant charm, a musical invitation to the imagination. Sylvain Siclier

1 CD Stunt Records/UVM Distribution.

• Neil Young and Promise of The Real
  Noise & Flowers

One month after the publication of Toast, album recorded in 2001 by Neil Young with his group Crazy Horse and long set aside, here is Noise & Flowers. This time with another band, Promise of The Real, who have collaborated regularly with Young since 2015. This is a collection of excerpts from concerts that took place during a short nine-date tour in the first weeks of the summer of 2019. In the cover booklet, Young indicates that during this tour, “every note was played for our great friend in music, Elliot”. Either Elliot Roberts, Young’s manager since the late 1960s, who died on June 21, 2019, a few days before the start of the tour. Knowledge perhaps leads to feeling more emotion when listening to Young and his comrades, rather carried away in a rock approach (Mr Soul, Alabama, Rockin’ in A Free World, the dark blues On The Beach, Fuckin’ Up in a furious conclusion), with a few country folks appeasements (Helpless, Comes A Time, Are You Ready for The Country?). S. Yes.

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