Mélusine (album) explained

Mélusine
Type:studio
Artist:Cécile McLorin Salvant
Cover:Cécile McLorin Salvant - Mélusine.png
Alt:A profile shot of Salvant with her tongue sticking out in front of a brown and orange backdrop.
Released:March 24, 2023
Recorded:April 12 and 26, 2022
Studio:
  • Brooklyn Recording, Brooklyn
  • The Bunker Studio, Brooklyn
Genre:Jazz
Length:45:07
Label:Nonesuch
Producer:
  • Cécile McLorin Salvant
  • Tom Korkidis
Language:French
Prev Title:Ghost Song
Prev Year:2022

Mélusine is the seventh solo studio album by American jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, released on March 24, 2023, by Nonesuch Records. The album was recorded in April 2022 in Brooklyn, with Salvant and Tom Korkidis producing. It is primarily sung in French, and is a concept album based on the folkoric story of Melusine. It was preceded by two singles.

The album was met with critical acclaim, and was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals for Godwin Louis's arranging of the song "Fenestra".

Recording and release

The album was recorded on April 12 and 26, 2022, at Brooklyn Recording and the Bunker Studio, both in Brooklyn, New York, except for "La route enchantée" which was recorded live. Salvant produced the album with Tom Korkidis, and her band included percussionist Weedie Braimah, pianists Sullivan Fortner and Aaron Diehl, bassists Paul Sikivie and Luques Curtis, drummers Kyle Pool and Obed Calvaire, and saxophonist Godwin Louis. Salvant primarily sang in French, her first language, with other songs in English, Occitan, and Haitian Kreyòl.

The album was first announced on January 26, 2023, with release dates set for March 24 for digital, and May 19 on vinyl, both by Nonesuch Records.[1] The announcement came with the lead single, "D'un feu secret", and an animated music video by Amanda Bonaiuto. "D'un feu secret" ("Of a Secret Fire") is a 1660 composition by Michel Lambert, which Salvant sings "like an early music performer, poised and delicate with feathery ornaments", while Fortner's synthesizer "savor[s] the anachronism".[2] The second single, the title track, was released on March 2.[3]

Themes

The album is named after Melusine, a figure of European folklore detailed by 14th century French writer Jean d'Arras. Melusine is a woman whose lower body transforms into a snake on Saturdays.[4] She is met by Raymondin and agrees to marry him and make him rich if he promises not to visit her on Saturdays, but when he eventually breaks that promise, she turns into a dragon and flies away.[5] Salvant said she first connected with the story's inclusion of "that alone time, that Room of One's Own, as Virginia Woolf put it, and how difficult it is to find that and protect it", but later also identified with Raymondin's desire to not allow one's partner to have a world outside the relationship.

Salvant also described the album as being about "that feeling of being a hybrid, a mixture of different cultures, which I've experienced not only as the American-born child of two first generation immigrants, but as someone raised in a family that is racially mixed, from several different countries, with different languages spoken in the home."

Style

Unlike traditional opera or musical theatre, where each song advances the main narrative, the songs of Mélusine reflect the emotional temperature of each part of the story. Slates Fred Kaplan said the album is "as much cabaret, Renaissance, mystical, and folk as it is jazz ... with songs spanning from the 12th century to vaudeville ditties and Broadway showtunes to a few Salvant originals".[6]

Reception

All About Jazzs Katchie Cartwright called Mélusine "a wondrous album, top to bottom". Mojo stated that the album "retains the intellectual curiosity of Salvant's jittery, questing catalogue".

Awards and nominations

Year! scope="col"
OrganizationAwardWorkRecipientStatus
2024Grammy AwardsBest Jazz Vocal AlbumMélusineSalvant[7] [8]
Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals"Fenestra"Godwin Louis

Year-end lists

Publication! scope="col"
AllMusic[9]
Louder Than War36[10]
Mojo67[11]

Personnel

Musicians

Technical

Notes and References

  1. News: Singer/Composer Cécile McLorin Salvant's New Album, Mélusine, Due March 24 on Nonesuch Records . . November 16, 2023.
  2. News: Pareles . Jon . Jon Pareles . January 27, 2023 . Rosalía Issues an English Request, and 9 More New Songs . . November 16, 2023.
  3. News: Mélusine – Single by Cécile McLorin Salvant . . November 16, 2023.
  4. News: Hochman . Steve . March 28, 2023 . Cécile McLorin Salvant's Mélusine is Imaginative and Thrilling . . November 16, 2023.
  5. News: Himes . Geoffrey . Geoffrey Himes . April 27, 2023 . The Many Voices of Cécile McLorin Salvant . . November 16, 2023.
  6. News: Kaplan . Fred . Fred Kaplan (journalist) . December 4, 2023 . The Best Jazz Albums of 2023 . . December 14, 2023.
  7. News: Minsker . Evan . November 10, 2023 . Grammy Nominations 2024: See the Full List Here . . November 16, 2023.
  8. News: Nardino . Meredith . February 4, 2024 . List of 2024 Grammy Awards Nominees and Winners . February 4, 2024 . Us Weekly.
  9. News: AllMusic Best of 2023 . . December 5, 2023.
  10. News: December 1, 2023 . Louder Than War Albums of 2023 . . December 3, 2023.
  11. News: November 9, 2023 . Mojos 75 Best Albums of 2023 . Mojo.