BELMONDO QUINTET

Renowned for their collaborations with such luminaries as Milton Nascimento and Yusef Lateef, Lionel and Stéphane Belmondo – the most famous siblings of French jazz – celebrate their artistic reunion. Leading an all-star quintet featuring Eric Legnini at the piano, the brothers salute their masters and synthesize a quarter of a century of musical adventures, inhabited by their unfailing memory and famed spirit.

Who hasn’t heard of the Belmondo brothers? Stéphane, flamboyant disciple of Chet Baker and Freddie Hubbard, one of the lyrical masters of his instrument, is among the most highly respected trumpet players on this side of the Atlantic. Lionel, the saxophonist, has been a tireless artisan of a greater synergy between different musical styles; merging the souls of Lili Boulanger and Yusef Lateef, combining Coltrane’s spirit with French liturgical traditions, and carrying the torch for jazz into the world of post-impressionistic classical music.

For over a quarter of a century these two exceptional musicians have undertaken an impressive number of musical adventures, always supported by the members of their quintet, who have followed the brothers in the course of their artistic explorations no matter in which direction it has taken them.

The Belmondo Quintet was founded at the end of the 1980s by Lionel and Stéphane, who have been musical partners since childhood. Rapidly, on stage and in recordings, the group made its mark on the French jazz scene, fervently defending the right to play a resolutely acoustic, intense and spiritual music that updated the modern jazz concepts developed by artists such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Wayne Shorter.

“Brotherhood” is only the fifth album the Belmondo Quintet has recorded in its career. It heralds the return to the recording studio for a group, which over the course of its rich and tumultuous existence has included a veritable who’s who of the French jazz world, and has been an example for several generations of French musicians. Arriving in Paris from their native Var region with their directness, their strong accent, and their intensity both on and off the stage, the Belmondo brothers have been a major influence on French jazz, having refocused on the basics, working passionately and with a tireless gift for transmission both to musicians of their generation and the next one, reigniting the sputtering flame of a music that had sometimes strayed from its goal and its substance.

In 2021 Belmondo Quintet won the LES VICTOIRES DU JAZZ Award for the Group of the Year and the French Disco Award (best album recorded by a French musician) awarded by the Académie du Jazz de France, for the album “Brotherwood” (B-Flat / Pias).

From: https://www.looproductions.com/ ; http://www.academiedujazz.com/palmares-2021; https://www.lesvictoiresdelamusique.fr/docs/Palmars des 19mes Victoires du Jazz 2021.pdf