Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Madeleine & Salomon: A Woman's Journey

Madeleine & Salomon: A Woman's Journey

By Jerome Wilson
January 28, 2018
View read count

A concept CD that looks at the plight of women throughout history is timely these days but not unusual. This disc by the duo

Madeleine & Salomon

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Madeleine & Salomon, however, stands out by drawing from a broader swath of musical sources than you might hear in most similar projects. They touch on familiar songs like

Billie Holiday

vocals
1915 - 1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and

Nina Simone

piano and vocals
1933 - 2003

" data-original-title="" title="">Nina Simone's "Four Women" but they also go farther afield to do tunes originally performed or written by Janis Ian, Marvin Gaye, Mimi and Richard Farina and Minnie Riperton.

The overall musical mode here is a minimalist blend of voice and piano with

Clotilde Rullaud

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Clotilde Rullaud's vocals cooing softly over

Alexandre Saada

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Alexandre Saada's dramatic piano with an occasional bit of flute mixed in. This leads to the normally angry "Strange Fruit" and "Four Women" being performed with an air of mournful resignation but other songs get more emotional treatments. The Farinas' "Swallow Song" has urgent duet singing over a galloping piano riff and gives off a sense of ominous menace. "The End Of Violence" is a seething poem by Elaine Brown, an early female member of the Black Panther Party that is recited with understated resolve by Rullaud before she segues into an impassioned, wailing rendition of

Janis Joplin

" data-original-title="" title="">Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz." The darkest and wildest track of all is "No Government/High School Drag," a medley that combines an electronic dance song that wishes for a wantless utopia with a nihilistic pseudo-beatnik poem from the movie High School Confidential. Saada plays a hammering, piano riff here while Rullaud sings the song seductively and recites the poem in a sharp, cawing bark. This section is as much performance art as music but it still works marvelously.

It is not all darkness. There are passages of light and hope, notably in their pleading version of Marvin Gaye's "Save The Children" and on an old Minnie Riperton single, "Les Fleurs," a lovely piece of light, romantic soul with Saada on electric piano. The romantically whispered ""Vous Faites Partie De Moi" is actually "I've Got You Under My Skin" with French lyrics written by

Josephine Baker

vocals
1906 - 1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Josephine Baker. That leads into a wandering piano and voice improvisation that closes the CD.

In performance this work is accompanied by short films but the musical component alone is very compelling. This project runs through a gamut of emotions like anger, sadness, joy, and optimism, throwing new angles onto familiar songs and exposing forgotten songs and songwriters to the world at large. This is a strong work of art that seems like it would be amazing live.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Image; Swallow Song; All The Pretty Horses; No Government/High School Drag; At Seventeen; Strange Fruit; Save The Children; Bain Libre 1; Little Girl Blue; The End Of Silence/Mercedes Benz; Les Fleurs; Bain Libre 2; Four Women; Vous Faites Partie De Moi; Le Jour Ne De La Femme.

Personnel

Clotilde Rullaud

vocals

Madeleine & Salomon

piano

Alexandre Saada

piano

Clotilde Rullaud: vocals, flute; Alexandre Saada: piano, rhodes, clavinet, back vocals.

Album information

Title: A Woman's Journey | Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Promise Land Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

D'Agala
< Previous

Grace Kelly: Free From Boundaries
Next >

Clotilde Rullaud Concerts

Sep 29 Mon

Duo C. Rullaud & A. Saada

Café Laurent
Paris, France

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.