Pierrick Pédron has climbed ever higher mountains over a remarkable discography for 20 years. Whether he reconciles aesthetics that are dear to him (The Cure or traditional harmonies with contemporary jazz) or launches high-level international collaborations (Mulgrew Miller in Deep in a Dream or the Fortner / Grenadier / Gilmore trio in 50/50 ); as many challenges as he sets himself, in an artistic approach of flawless honesty.

It must be said that Pierrick gives himself the means of his ambitions. And if today, he is recognized by his peers as THE virtuoso of the alto saxophone and by the media as a key figure on the French scene (as evidenced by his prizes as artist of the year at the Victoires du Jazz and artist of the year of the Jazz Magazine / Jazz News selection in 2021) it is at the cost of hard and constant work on the saxophone in the purest philosophy of jazz.

To approach the pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba is to approach a legend. He is one of those great jazz pianists whom nothing and no one can resist. Inspired by the both Afro-Cuban and Western tradition, gifted with the keyboard and the offbeat, he very early attracted international attention and began a fruitful collaboration with the legendary Blue Note label, with which he recorded fifteen scrapbooks. Winner of four Grammy Awards as a leader (Nocturne and Land of the Sun in duet with Charlie Hadden, in 2020 with Skyline in trio with Jack Dejohnette and Ron Carter, and a Latin Grammy Award in 2022 with singer Aymée Nuviola) he has collaborated with the monuments of jazz (Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Herbie Hancock…) and continues to travel the world, recognized as one of the great contemporary masters of the piano.

The album to be released next spring, soberly titled Pédron / Rubalcaba, tells the essential; the story of a meeting at the top. In this art of duos and mirroring, Pierrick and Gonzalo challenge each other, challenge each other, gauge each other, amuse themselves by surprising each other and seek to surpass each other with obvious mastery by going through a selection great standards spanning the 20th century, from Sidney Bechett to Carla Bley. Two alter-egos who want to push the boundaries of the expressiveness of their instruments and for whom everything seems to pass so easily, allow themselves to venture together into the music that lies behind the notes. We let ourselves be carried away by the mastery of the resonances of the piano, the breaths coating the notes, the sounds of the keys of the saxophone, the impromptu songs of Gonzalo; a “meta-music” which, combined with a permanent and intoxicating virtuosity, magnifies all its poetry.

And even if Pierrick and Gonzalo had never spoken to each other before putting their hands on their instruments in a New York studio last June, we feel from the first notes how much esteem was immediate and their deep symbiosis. And that by traveling together in music, a sincere friendship was born.