Mélodies en noir & blanc

Album review

As the most Parisian of Italians describes his own 2017 cuvée: “This could have been the title of a 50s thriller. There’s a bit of nostalgia for my youth, of course. For that time when movies weren’t all in colour, in which we had to imagine the blue eyes of Michelle Morgan and Jean Gabin, never being fully sure. This black and white made us dream; we gave it the colour we could imagine, rather than the fake reality of Technicolor. I wanted to reinterpret songs I wrote quite a long time ago. Time passes, but music stays, timeless. Timeless like Gérard Manset’s song Il voyage en solitaire (He Travels Solo), which I sing here, but has in fact been singing within me since the first time I heard it. And then there’s the piano, of course. The instrument with black and white teeth… Black and white keyboard, the perfect symbol of a successful blend. A piano is a great orchestra at the tip of your fingers, a miracle. Throughout my long life as a musician, nothing has been more exciting for me than discovering new talents. Artists with their own personalities, but capable to serve the music suggested to them, to enrich it, give it a nice light, making it theirs. I’ve been lucky enough to meet a few artists capable of sublimating a partition, to bring these paper notes to life. It is the case today with Dino Rubino. His touch on the piano is magnificent. His lyricism, without any dramatic exaggeration, is overwhelming. I’ve played with some of the greatest pianists: Keith Jarrett, Michel Petrucciani and many others made me tingle. And Dino triggers that same emotion, this particular shiver that you’ll feel too, I’m sure, listening to Mélodies en noir et blanc, an album that reinterprets some of my favourite ballads. Time is a merciless judge. Whatever resists it gains incredible value. The same is true with music; the type that doesn’t concern itself with trends. And for friendship, everlasting when it is strong. Between Michel Benita and myself there’s an indissoluble link, the friendship of several decades. Our music highlights it, regardless of circumstances. “Happiness is sorrow taking a rest” Leo Ferré used to say. So let’s leave sorrow to its sleep, forever.”