No Codes – Usual Suspects

Ooooohhh, this sounds like a jazz album of the year! In any case, it will definitely be on my 2024 list. Benjamin Deschamps, saxophone (ex-Révélation Radio-Canada jazz 2017-2018), Sébastien Pellerin, double bass, Louis-Vincent Hamel, drums and Frank Lozano, tenor sax form the No Codes quartet, well steeped in the waters of contemporary jazz. Contemporary jazz tinged with rock and blues energy, with angular chromatic harmonies propelled by muscular rhythms, with the exception of the occasional ballad.

What stands out in particular is the remarkable technical and musical quality of this amazing quartet. Usual Suspects has a discursive effervescence reminiscent of free jazz, but without the abrasive, abstract and dishevelled edge. While the freedom given to each musician, each an excellent improviser in his own right, is great and used sparingly, the clarity of the melodic and thematic framework is such that all the excesses remain perfectly anchored in an understandable phrasing and an ultra-clear general outline.

No codes lives up to its name by throwing out the conventional codes of a certain conformism, whether that of plebeian smooth jazz or the sometimes haughty codes of the avant-garde. Deschamps and co. offer us a journey that doesn’t shy away from the demands of listening, but doesn’t snub the pure ”accessible” fun of the musical experience either. It’s controlled, intelligent and genuinely infectious chaos.

The main fault with Usual Suspects is that it doesn’t last long enough.