Of all the vocal artists of the current generation of contemporary jazz, the Albanian (of Swiss mixing) Elina Duni seems to offer one of the most original and inspiring visions. Her style oscillates between traditional jazz, classical, and folk. She possesses a beautifully muted and seductive voice, with an impeccable quality in terms of expressive accuracy and intonation. I imagine she could easily participate in early music projects like those of L’Arpeggiata led by Christina Pluhar, or even the ecumenical crossovers by the Montreal-based ensemble Constantinople led by Kiya Tabassian. While simultaneously pursuing a perfect career as a jazz standards singer in clubs.
Her early albums, with her quartet, favoured modern jazz, with a frank and propulsive energy, interspersed with well-calibrated ballads. But since she arrived at ECM (with the album Lost Ships in 2020), she has been offering us a very personal path to follow with her. A tranquil path that traverses all the influences mentioned above, but fused into original programs bathed in generally soft light. These are mainly small journeys of great sweetness in which she guides us with kindness. The same goes for the second ECM album, A Time to Remember (2023), created with the same quartet format as the previous one (Rob Luft on electric guitar, Fred Thomas on piano and drums, Matthieu Michel on flugelhorn).
For this new entry, Reaching for the Moon, she takes the economy of means a step further: only Rob Luft accompanies her. But what is removed in sonic possibilities is multiplied in emotional subtlety and musical introspection.
We hear pure little wonders of beauty and delicacy, both vocal and instrumental, like in Les Berceaux (by Gabriel Fauré, one of the most moving interpretations I have ever heard, classical and jazz combined). Pay attention also to Yumeji’s Theme & Sleep Safe and Warm, an enchanting fusion of two great cinematic melodies by Shigeru Umebayashi (for the film In The Mood for Love) and Krzysztof Komeda (for the film Rosemary’s Baby), or Your Arms, an original composition by Duni and Luft, a sort of sepia-toned lullaby, wrapped in a romantic veil.
These are just a few titles that have particularly impressed me, but the entire collection of Reaching for the Moon (by the way, an exquisite cover of Irving Berlin) is unforgettable, etched in our minds thanks to Elina Duni’s voice, as precise and assured as it is subtly fragile, which gives it a mark of total authenticity.
One must also note the remarkable playing of Rob Luft, characterised by sound flourishes and whispered caresses, giving full space to the singer’s moving art, but supporting it in an equally indispensable way, in his delicately sensitive manner, like that of a Renaissance luth player.
A journey that resembles a tranquil ascent towards the lunar light, bathed in its diaphanous and soothing spirit. This program, with its touching intimacy, is among the most moving you will hear this year.
