QUIET BLUE

QUIET BLUE, from trumpeter and oenologist Thibault Renard, is an acoustic Jazz album – organic, born of air, wood, and time, just like a fine vintage wine.

QUIET BLUE reveals itself as a profoundly nuanced, delicate, and spontaneous jazz work, recorded in a single day. Its compositions seem to have matured with the patient slowness of nature taking its time, yet they surprise with their sudden appearance, like a flower blooming without warning. This album by Thibault Renard is imbued with the very sap of a human life, that of an artist striving to stand firm against the adverse winds.

The very existence of this opus is inseparable from the contributions of David Sauzay (soprano and tenor saxophones), Daniel Gassin (piano), Mauro Gargano (bass), and Andrea Michelutti (drums). Their art of improvisation, immediate listening, and remarkable sensitivity have breathed palpable life into each track.

In “Quiet Blue,” Thibault Renard doesn’t just compose; he sculpts poetic and sensory explorations. Each track opens like a window onto inner and outer landscapes, offering profound reflections on existence and fleeting flashes of sensation.

The album opens with “Shifting Tones,” a vibrant piece that captures the essence of a life. From the very first notes, the tone is set: modern jazz, full of swing and subtlety. Next, “Blue Hills” transports us with an evocative composition of an endless swim. Water reflections on a tiled floor merge with the image of a swimmer traversing hills and plains. It’s a distant call, a promise of light, warmth, calm, and voluptuousness, carried by smooth and wild music emanating from the mists.

“Scratch That” plunges us into an aerial roller coaster ride, depicting acrobatic flight through clouds. Its title, referencing an intriguing friction sound between the bass and piano in the introduction, conveys a palpable sense of urgency. The eponymous track, “Quiet Blue,” paints the powerful and raw image of a “mega forest fire,” a moment of incredible natural force.

The album takes a lighter turn with “Knuckle Samba,” a humorous piece dedicated to pianist Leonardo Montana. Depicting babies crawling and then gathering, the title is a playful joke about the sound a pianist might have produced playing with their knuckles in prehistoric times. “Time Vagabond” invites us on an imaginary hike through instantly changing landscapes, suggesting we perceive ourselves as a spatio-temporal tourist to soften judgment on an at times absurd daily life.

With “Body & Truth,” Thibault Renard explores telescoping figures in infinite development, abstract and geometric. This piece questions the search for truth, postulating that it might entirely reside within our body—the very body that connects us to the universe. “Antique Blues” invites meditation on the origins of the blues, imagining the first sounds played by humanity in ancient times.

“Sweet Rise” evokes a luminous surface swept by soft, serrated shadows, like branches and foliage. This track expresses the rare and irresistible feeling of harmony with the Whole, an inner plenitude comparable to a sunrise.

Finally, “Shifting Tones Reprise” closes the album, allowing us to rediscover the opening theme from another angle, confirming the delicate tension between abyss and light, and the fragile beauty of balance.

These compositions form a coherent and deeply personal body of work, where every note is imbued with Thibault Renard’s history and sensitivity. Open to all musical expressions, he offers us “Quiet Blue” with the certainty that his Jazz is, quite rightly, for everyone.