In this new album, Virginia Constantine seeks to find what is truly her DNA: jazz that is not elitist and pop that is not simplistic. A bridge between two worlds that corresponds to her culture and her desires. She tends to get closer to these artists who knew, in the past, to take this way that we could qualify today as crossover. Rickie Lee Jones or Norah Jones are part of these artists who put the raw emotion before the technique, who, with a singing nevertheless marked by the jazz, manage to sing pop, folk or rock songs with a disconcerting naturalness. This is the obviousness that Virginia Constantine feeds on. The fusion of styles does not scare her as long as she keeps her own. This inimitable swing and this deep voice as muffled as velvet, everything seems easy for this child of the ball, bathed since birth in music. Except for three covers, the titles are originals. Virginia Constantine has worked on her work a hundred times, chiseling out texts and music, to achieve this purity.
To help her to ratify the result of so many years of work, she called upon the producer and arranger Frank Eulry whose past experiences highlight his ability to assimilate different musical styles. On this album, Pop and Jazz cohabit perfectly because the treatment of the music and the sound is harmonious and soothing. Sublimating the voice and transmitting all its emotion was the absolute priority and the permanent challenge of these recordings.
The arrangements give pride of place to acoustic sounds, strings and brass, allowing the musicians to express their excellence. Finally, the choice of Hubert Salou, a lover of « beautiful sound », to record and mix this album seemed to be an obvious choice. Like Frank Eulry, his background and tastes could only serve such a project. In an era where machines often replace men, this new opus of Virginia Constantine sounds the return to the human, to the emotion, to the truth.
Review available on Nightfall.
