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Madeleine & Salomon

Madeleine & Salomon is the encounter of two artists with distinct musical backgrounds: the composer and pianist Alexandre Saada and the vocalist and flutist Clotilde Rullaud. Six years after their acclaimed first album, A Woman’s Journey, the duo releases its second album, Eastern Spring. Although this new album pays homage to the militant Middle Eastern pop of the 1960s-1970s – all gems, though most are unknown in the West – one recognises certain intonations of the previous album, which was devoted to the leading politically-aware songstresses of the American canon.

With a pronounced taste for minimalism, Madeleine & Salomon once again works like a charm, delivering in the power of the voice, the imagination and the possibility of a music that augments the myriad of stories that songs convey from Morocco to Türkiye. Singing in English and sometimes in French, they echo the existential interrogations, the hopes and the contestations of a youth thirsting for change. Whether romantic, dreamy or militant, all of these songs engage in the sort of social or spiritual interrogation that still matters today, wherever you are in the world

Awards

Estern Spring (2022)

Jazzwise (UK) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jazz Port (CZ) - 4,5/5

Télérama (FR) - TTTT & Grand Crus 2022

France Musique - BanZzaï - Best of 2022

Jazz News (FR) - A Must Have ! & Best of 2022

Jazz Magazine (FR) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ & Best of 2022

Citizen Jazz (FR) - Elected !

A Woman's Journey (2016)

All About Jazz (USA) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fono Forum (DE) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ranked in the Top 25 albums of February 2018 by KALX 90.7FM Berkley radio (USA)

Ranked in the Top 5 albums of January 2018 by Paul Glaser on WLFR 91.7 FM (USA)

Ranked in the Top 10 albums of January 2018 by Erin Wolf on WMSE 91.7 FM (USA)

Ranked in the Best albums of 2017 by Hobart Taylor on KUCI 88.9FM (USA)

Ranked in the 5 Best jazz albums of 2016 of 2 shows OpenJazz and BanZZaï on FRANCE MUSIQUE (French National Radio)

Pick of week on FIP (French National Radio)

Ranked in the Best jazz albums of 2016 by Jazz Magazine and Citizen Jazz

Madeleine & Salomon: A Woman's Journey

Read "A Woman's Journey" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
January 28, 2018

A concept CD that looks at the plight of women throughout history is timely these days but not unusual. This disc by the duo Madeleine & Salomon, however, stands out by drawing from a broader swath of musical sources than you might hear in most similar projects. They touch on familiar songs like Billie Holiday's “Strange Fruit" and Nina Simone's “Four Women" but they also go farther afield to do tunes originally performed or written by Janis Ian, Marvin Gaye, ...

Eastern Spring

“An inspired, left-of-conventional merger, Madeleine & Salomon [...] brings an adventurous pan-Mediterranean approach to the voice-piano fabric of Eastern spring [...] with its focus on freedom and protest songs, sometimes leaning into the realm of art pop and musical theater, with jazz elastics in the mix.” Josef Woodard - JAZZIZ (USA)

“There are some wonderful songs to discover and rediscover here, not least the set closer ‘Do you love me?’ by the Lebanese Bendaly Family, which is given a yearningly minimalist treatment by the duo.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Robert Shore - JAZZWISE (UK)

Eastern Spring

“It’s never overdone: a contemplative ethos flows in and out of music. (...) A striking and special project, this.” Michael Tucker - JAZZ JOURNAL (UK)

“It’s a distinctive, creative and very original album, drawing all the songs together in the duo’s own style.” Alison Bentley - LONDON JAZZ NEWS (UK)

“A voice, a piano, and lots and lots of emotion. Where does it come from? Full sincerity nestled in the overwhelming voice of Clotilde Rullaud (Madeleine) and in the unisson playing of the piano of Alexandre Saada (Salomon)." TTTT - Louis-Julien Nicolaou - TELERAMA SORTIR (FR)

“A soulful, consistent, audacious album. A beautiful journey.” Didier Mélon - Le monde est un village - Didier MELON - RTBF (BE)

"The great comeback of the french duo who blew us away in 2016" Nathalie Piolé - BanZZaï - FRANCE MUSIQUE - BEST OF 2022 (FR)

A Woman's Journey

“A fascinating album. So many moods, so much space and lyricism. So sultry, so hypnotic.” Clive Davis - THE SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE (UK)

“One of the most beautiful jazz duos of these last few decades” Lorraine Sollimain – POLITIS

“This project runs through a gamut of emotions like anger, sadness, joy, and optimism, throwing new angles onto familiar songs and exposing forgotten songs and songwriters to the world at large. This is a strong work of art.” Jerome Wilson - ALL ABOUT JAZZ (USA)

“A brilliant date! These are fully formed readings with a power all their own. […] This release as a whole, flows with impeccable sense and beauty.” Larry Blood - KZSC 88.1FM - Monterey Jazz Fest Broadcast Producer (USA)

« Like jazz itself, Madeleine & Salomon know no boundaries and explore the outer limits of imagination, improvisation and cultural revolution. This is a musical experience that embraces change and pushes the cage walls further apart, exploring freedom with grandiose conviction. » Dee Dee McNeil – MUSICALMEMOIR (USA)

“Bright sparks! Both highly expressive soloists, Rullaud and Saada also subscribe to the ethos of sparse, skillfully distilled arrangements, which is very much the case on ‘A woman’s journey’.” Kevin Le Gendre - ECHOES MAG (UK)

“An enchanting, captivating, hypnotic album” Bruno Pfeiffer - LIBERATION.FR

“If there’s albums that possess an extra bit of soul, that possess the art of overwhelming you and taking you by the hand to never let you go, if there’s albums that grab you right in your gut and carry you beyond those few minutes where everything not only seems to have already been said yet also remains to be said, (...), then A Woman’s Journey is assuredly one of them.” LES DERNIERES NOUVELLES DU JAZZ

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