When this album appeared at #23 on The Roots Music Report's Top 50 World Album Chart on Jan 22, 2022, I had to find out more about the Matthieu Saglio Quartet. Capturing a delightful date with them and some guests at a couple July 2020 jazz festivals in Spain, we hear the classically-trained cellist and bandleader present eleven adventurous jazz compositions with a lineup of stellar accompanists, vocalists and even a taste of flamenco dancing. Besides Matthieu Saglio (cello, vocals), the others in his quartet are Steve Shehan (percussion), Christian Belhomme (piano, keyboard, vocals) and Léo Ullmann (violin). Guests include Camille Saglio (voice), Isabel Julve (voice, flamenco dance, castanets), Abdoulaye N'Diaye (voice) and Carlos Sanchis (accordion).

Transcendent and uplifting, the music has both classical and improvisational leanings that fuse free-flowing notes with more structured passages. All together, they create serene and subtle dynamic mood changes. With numbers like “A Night in San Javier,” “Amanecer,” “El Abrazo”and “Atman” the France-born cellist, now based in Valencia, Spain, expresses a jazzy signature sound. Since embracing the genre in 1996, Saglio has gotten involved in various types of music and integrated different musical languages into his own universe.

Saglio is tight with his quartet, and the stellar musicians don’t seem shy about experimenting themselves. For that European jazzy café feeling, I was particularly fond of those arrangements including the sweet accordion playing of Carlos Sanchis such as “Cositas Del Querer,” a track that also features the spirited voice of Isabel Julve. To the crowd’s delight that evening, she also appears with castanet and dance on “L'appel Du Muezzin.” “El Abrazo” has a very eerie quality with Camille Saglio’s vocalizing and the arrangement’s rhythmic fluctuation.  “Sur Le Chemin” features warm conversational interplay between members of the quartet.       

Similar to the creativity and capability displayed by jazz violinists like John Blake and Didier Lockwood, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear cellist Matthieu Saglio embarking on his own personal effervescent journey, fronting a jazz quartet, and incorporating elements of surprise and delight. Saglio doesn’t go for novelties such as strums, smears, slurs and broken lines. Rather, he just seems to concentrate on good technique, intonation and delivery with a strong presence. 

While a piece like “Bolero Triste” might start conservatively, the audience, albeit small, warms up and eventually comes around to fully embrace the ensemble’s music as the evening goes on.  “Après La Pluie” incorporates African flavorings at its beginning with Abdoulaye N'diaye’s singing before the song’s genesis establishes a nice groove with Carlos Sanchis’ accordion. This is organic musical fusion, based on the jazz idiom, which highlights strong cello, violin, piano and percussion along with several other lovely colorings. (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)