Milestones

“The superb Quatuor Ébène has made a name for itself not only as an elegant purveyor of classical fare but also for jazz performances,” wrote the New York Times after a concert by the French ensemble which featured both a Schumann string quartet and – as an encore – Erroll Garner’s  ‘Misty’, a soaringly romantic jazz classic. ‘Misty’ now features on Milestones, an album paying tribute in its title to Miles Davis and his 1958 collection of the same name, a landmark of modern jazz. Quatuor Ébène’s Milestones features reinterpretations of two Miles Davis tracks and of music by, among other jazz luminaries, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Toots Thielemans and Michel Portal. 2024 is a landmark year for Quatuor Ébène, which was founded 25 years ago at the conservatory of Boulogne-Billancourt, just outside Paris. The quartet’s first jazz-inspired album was Fiction, released in 2010. As Pierre Colombet, first violinist of the ensemble, explained: “We try to be as broad in our repertoire choices as possible …This is why it is important for us to play jazz and other styles of music … We like to be as free as possible in our performance.” 2024 also marks  the departure  of the cellist Raphaël Merlin, and the arrival of a new cellist, 30 year-old Yuya Okamoto. Milestones is Quatuor Ébène’s last album with the participation of Raphaël Merlin.