Saxophonist Matthieu Bordenave (b.1983, Tarbes, France) seemed to arrive fully formed with La Traversée, his 2020 debut for ECM. He had of course paid his dues for many years before arriving at this point, initially studying under classical saxophonist Christian Charnay before moving on to study jazz and improvised music at the National Conservatory of Music (CNSM) in Paris. He then completed his Masters in Munich where he is currently based, and has released a string of recordings with guitarists Peter O’Mara and Geoff Goodman, bass clarinettist Rudi Mahall and drummer Shinya Fukumori amongst others, appearing on the latter’s 2018 ECM album For 2 Akis.
Whereas La Traversée blended the casts and colours of 20th century composers Messiaen and Dutilleux with the dirge-like chamber jazz of Giuffre and Bley, The Blue Land leans more heavily into Bordenave’s roots in Coltrane and Lloyd. Sumptuously recorded in October 2022 at Studios La Buissonne in Pernes-Les-Fontaines, the same trio of Bordenave (tenor and soprano saxophones), Florian Weber (piano) and Patrice Moret (bass) is this time augmented by London-based James Maddren (drums), who brings both a sense of steel and his characteristic rhythmic guile.
The saxophonist’s decision to introduce the different timbral colours of the soprano is another important musical choice. Featured on around half of the tracks, the smaller horn both expands the group’s palette and underscores Bordenave’s affinities with the late Wayne Shorter. The impact of the changes in personnel and instrumentation are immediately felt on the opening “La Porte Entrouverte”, Weber’s abstract solo intro offering a tantalising glimpse through a half-open door before Bordenave’s melancholic soprano leads the quartet through a decidedly Shorter-esque free ballad.
It is Bordenave’s tenor which traces the elegant melodic arcs of the title-track, the trio exchanging oblique glancing blows as the piece unfolds. John Coltrane’s “Compassion”, the only cover in a programme which otherwise consists of Bordenave originals, channels the fire of his late period meditations into something rather more slow-burning. “Cyrus” recalls Jarrett’s great Scandinavian quartet of the ’70s, while Shorter’s influence on Bordenave’s tenor is at its most obvious during the serpentine twists of the languid “Refraction”. The free-wheeling “Distance” is altogether more visceral, and despite its title “Three Four” has something of a rubato feel. “Timbre” briefly alludes to the free-bop of Miles’ great mid-‘60s quintet before moving into freer terrain, the set finally closing out in a reflective vein with the ruminative “Three Peaks”.
Every bit as compelling as La Traversée, The Blue Land is at once an accomplished work and an evolution. With ‘next generation’ artists of the calibre of Mette Henriette, Maciej Obara and now Matthieu Bordenave, Manfred Eicher’s rich legacy is clearly in safe hands.
