2023-11-03 19:16:03
Trumpeter Stéphane Belmondo is programming three evenings at Sunset Sunside in Paris. GERALDINE ARESTEANU
Stéphane Belmondo, trumpet prize at the end of his lips, goes to Paris. He is 19 years old. The year is 1986. His first gig is a month-long commitment to the legendary Club Saint-Germain. Renewed with his brother Lionel (sax). Months in which every day begins at midnight: nightlife in clubs, exaltation of all the senses, myths and legends, from meeting to meeting, the musician crosses paths with Gil Evans, invited by Laurent Cugny at the head of his big band , Light…
As improbable as it is normal, he gets noticed at the Palace by Chet Baker. Which invites him, the next day, to join him on the stage of New Morning. Everything in these pictures seems to come from a powerful imagination as the thing seems impossible today. Almost everywhere, clubs have lost this function of workshop frantic, this laboratory side and graceful life, this existence without clock or measurement, this knowledge of squandering time. Which makes the presence of an artist, three consecutive days with three different formulas, like what Sunset Sunside invites you to with Stéphane Belmondo, particularly happy.
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Sign of listening
This is what we said to each other on Tuesday October 31 during the first evening of the club on rue des Lombards (Paris 1st). Aldo Romano, the club’s legendary drummer, made a sort of comeback there, after months where his state of health kept him away from the stages. Large crowds to celebrate the event, very young, mixed, enthusiastic audience – the perfect opposite of the fearful idea we have of jazz clubs, with many musicians in the ranks: Stéphane Belmondo, the venerable Henri Texier, Gautier Garrigue, his younger brother, promise of drummers, etc. Which is always a sign, yes, but of what? A sign of listening.
In the audience, Stéphane Belmondo has a unique ear. Because on November 2, he is the one who takes over. Club jazz is music that can be seen with the naked eye. We see listening, musicians listening to each other, whether they are playing, “chorusing” or even when they are not playing. The evening of Aldo Romano’s return, on stage, Pierre de Bethmann (piano, an essential presence which one wonders where he will find it under his immense possibilities), Francesco Bearzatti (tenor sax), Sylvain Romano (double bass) and, profile, Aldo, colorful outfit, familiar smile, always looking for the gesture of yesteryear. The proximity, the intimacy, this unrivaled value of clubs.
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On November 2, Belmondo succeeds him, with “Timeline”, three consecutive evenings where the selected artist evokes three moments in his trajectory. In the past, in the present, in the future. A sequence which also plays with the three fundamentals of the club: proximity, sensitive listening and use of time. The club does not distribute, does not compress time, like a concert. On November 2, Belmondo resumed Wonderland, his first album dedicated to Stevie Wonder (two Victoires du jazz in 2005). At his side, Eric Legnini (piano), Thomas Bramerie (his bassist, since the first group, in 1982, Belmondo was then 15 years old), Laurent Robin (drums).
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