duo Airelle Besson - Lionel Suarez

Airelle Besson, a multi-award-winning jazz trumpeter, has been lighting up European stages since 2015 at the head of several projects: duos, quartets, and even an orchestra.
Lionel Suarez has become the essential accordionist who has rehabilitated his 'classical' instrument into a fertile interface for all kinds of music.

An intimate duo, their compositions and improvisations are characterised by a blend of tenderness, danceable spirit and complicity... A rare combination of the brilliance of the trumpet and the mellowness of the accordion, combined with the liveliness, even the explosion, of Airelle's daring proposals and the sensitive inventions orchestrated by Lionel. It's worth emphasising just how much these two have a knack for natural simplicity, quickly shared with an audience in complicity. For while their virtuosity is amply established, it would not inspire the same enthusiasm without the captivating melodic and narrative qualities of this generous recital.

“The trumpeter Airelle Besson, a luminary of French jazz, further nurtures her long relationship with accordionist Lionel Suarez on Blossom, a mainstream but delightful mix of jaunty and tender originals, and affectionate covers of Carla Bley’s ‘Ida Lupino’ and the Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays song ‘Au Lait’.” The Guardian

“It seems an odd pairing, but one that proves more than the sum of its parts (...) No matter the inspiration for the music - a foggy day in Japan’s imperial city for the wistful ‘Kyoto dans la Brume’, for example - we are never far from the moody Parisian skies captured on the cover.” The Observer

“French trumpet accordion duo albums aren’t the product of 52nd street. They don’t belong in a box assembled from a manual by a phalanx of self appointed taste terminators. They aren’t many of these.” Marlbank