In 2020, film director Marie-France Briere approached trumpeter
Erik Truffaz about composing music for Les iles de Napoleon, a documentary. Afterward, she requested that the trumpeter's quartet play a concert of themes from French cinema to close a film festival. The band enjoyed it so much that they asked
Truffaz to approach
Blue Note about releasing two distinct albums of cinema themes.
Rollin' appeared early in the year, and
Clap! appeared later. Co-produced by the trumpeter and bassist
Marcelo Giuliani, the rest of the band includes percussionist
Raphael Chassin, keyboardist
Alexis Anerile, and guitarist
Matthis Pascaud. For
Clap!'s eight selections,
Truffaz allowed himself (and his sidemen) to conjure new musical and sonic images from the chosen themes, as well as the movies they accompany. The quintet weaves the new music and exploratory sounds and textures into complementary interpretations offering different, sometimes deeper associations for the themes through modern jazz and
Truffaz's creative process.
Opener "Les Choses de la Vie" is the title theme to
Claude Sautet's 1970 romantic drama and was composed by
Philippe Sarde. The original scene saw
Michel Piccoli's sportscar speeding through the bucolic countryside. The somewhat jaunty original has been reimagined. It's spectral and unwinds slowly, creating space as well as dynamic tension that hovers between Eastern and Western harmonies. When
Truffaz solos, the tune's body unfurls gradually, encountering modal blues, post-bop, and ambient music a la
Jon Hassell. Veteran French singer/songwriter
Bertrand Belin lends his striking baritone to
Peter Ivers' "In Heaven" from
David Lynch's film Eraserhead. While almost totally faithful to the original, the textured electronic backdrops, lounge guitar shuffle, and elegant trumpet add dimension while
Belin completely inhabits the lyrics that knowingly and lecherously address the false promise of paradise on earth. "Theme de Camillel" is a duet between the trumpeter and
Anerile's various keyboards. It's tender, lyrical, and bittersweet in representing the final conversation in a couple's romantic dissolution. It's speculative while reflecting tragedy. "Requiem pour un con - 'Le pacha'" was composed by
Michel Colombier (who composed several selections here) and
Serge Gainsbourg. A noir-ish, mutant, instrumental approach crosses brittle, funky jazz-rock driven by
Pascaud's electric guitar before
Anerile's Rhodes and Hammond B-3 frame the leader's lyrical muted trumpet solo. The inclusion of "Lonesome Cowboy" featuring outsider American singer/songwriter
Stone Jack Jones in duet with
Truffaz, is an outlier. Originally sung by
Elvis Presley in the film
Loving You, here it's rendered as a tender, lonesome country song with
Truffaz's restrained horn hovering above
Jones' fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Closer "L'Oiseau - 'Belle et Sebastien'" by
Eric Demarsan and
Daniel White, is the title theme to a French children's television series from 1965. Rendered softly and deliberately by a trio,
Truffaz quotes from "Summertime" before articulating the theme, then adds lines and fragments from other standards -- "My Funny Valentine," "Shadow of Your Smile" -- amid brushed snare and a woody, languid, walking bassline. Along with its predecessor,
Clap! makes for an indispensable project from
Truffaz. His idiosyncratic, carefully articulated jazz approach to film music is distinctive and resonant and stands with his best work. ~ Thom Jurek
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