Matthieu Donarier: Live Forms

Matthieu Donarier presents his second album with his usual trio, following the widely acclaimed Optitopic in 2004. This new live album, recorded in Saint-Nazaire and Angers, once again showcases the strong intimacy between these three musicians, who have been playing together since their school years and their time at the CNSM. It is with them that Matthieu Donarier, known for his work in other ensembles (with Daniel Humair, Alban Darche, or Patrice Caratini), emerges as both a complete saxophonist and a superb composer.

For Matthieu Donarier, a voracious consumer of all kinds of music since childhood, everything serves as an excuse for play and diversion. This could range from music inspired by New York jazz, to French songs by Charles Trenet ("Il pleut dans ma chambre") and Georges Brassens, or even Satie's "Gnossiennes." Matthieu Donarier can do everything with anything. Opposed to any linearity and an advocate for multi-layered music filled with surprises, everything becomes an opportunity for constructing expansive spaces for improvisation. Here, one can hear Donarier's work on harmonic tensions ("Abrakadabra"), melodic lines ("Au refuge"), and atonalities. Take Brassens, for example. Despite being one of the most jazz-influenced chansonniers in French music, venturing into his repertoire can be treacherous, and past attempts have often been disastrous (evident in Moustache's rather unsuccessful efforts in the 1980s). Yet, under the pen of this young saxophonist, the endeavor is imbued with both wit and humor, as evidenced by "Le roi des cons" set against a reggae backdrop or "Le temps ne fait rien à l'affaire" with a hint of mambo, always liberating the melody and taking it to new places, into his own playground. As for the themes composed by Donarier (like "Abrakadabra"), they reveal the perfect synergy of the trio and the ever-brilliant Manu Codjia (listen to their complementary interplay on "Novosibirsk"). Their fusion extends not only to the playing but also to the blending of sounds.

Beyond the compositional work, it is Matthieu Donarier himself who impresses. He reveals himself to be an immense saxophonist, cut from the cloth of the greatest. From the very start of the album, there's an emergence of a sound of rare amplitude, always with immense self-control and without any exuberance. It's no surprise that Stéphane Kerecki recently paired him with Tony Malaby; they are so alike. In either case, his passion for sound—whether in the ultra-low or ultra-high ranges ("Underwater Scenes"), lyrical or laid-back, fiery or ethereal—is palpable. An incandescent self-control. One might think of Donny McCaslin or David Binney, other exemplars of a modern saxophone school, if Donarier weren't so insistent on classifying himself first... among the unclassifiable, impossible to confine within a stereotypical saxophone expression. Donarier, also a remarkable clarinetist (having started the instrument at age five!), showcases an impressive range of talents on the tenor: a sensual phrasing, a powerful and projected sound, and a perfectly controlled vibrato. He seamlessly shifts from the smoothest sound to the woody fluidities of an Art Pepper. A tenor with a velvety Lesterian quality that could don the light veils of an alto.

What we hear here comes from a profound expression. From the ineffable essence of great saxophonists who have long replaced words with another emergence of themselves. In the case of Matthieu Donarier, this is certainly not a revelation. It is simply the confirmation of immense talent.