Blossom
Airelle Besson & Lionel Suarez
Blossom is the debut duo album by French trumpeter Airelle Besson and accordionist Lionel Suarez, released on January 30, 2026 via Bretelles Prod and Papillon Jaune. The record is the fruit of a decade-long musical partnership between the two, which began in 2015 at the Jazz sous les Pommiers festival in Coutances, France. Recorded at Alys Studio in October 2025 and mastered by Pierre Wandewaeter, the album presents 12 tracks — nine originals and three cover versions — across 45 minutes. Both artists bring substantial classical training and jazz credentials to the collaboration: Besson is an established figure on the European jazz scene as a composer, bandleader, and sought-after collaborator, while Suarez's playing carries a strong folkloric vein alongside his jazz pedigree, lending the album a distinctively French character that encompasses traces of bal musette and tango traditions.
The pairing of trumpet and accordion is unusual enough to invite curiosity, but as All About Jazz notes, the duo navigates the combination with joyous confidence, producing music that sits comfortably across chamber jazz, neo-classical, and French popular styles without firmly belonging to any one of them. The originals — including the title track, the energetic "La Course," and the atmospheric "Kyoto Dans la Brume" — showcase the rapport built over their decade of collaboration, while the three covers are equally instructive: Carla Bley's "Ida Lupino," Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays' "Au Lait" (from Offramp, 1982), and the standard "Answer Me." Reviewers have praised the album's delicate balance of sensitivity and passion, its melodic directness, and the way Besson and Suarez function as genuine conversational partners — Marlbank describing Suarez as "someone there to finish her sentences and to embark on his own new paragraphs."
Blossom
Airelle Besson & Lionel Suarez
Blossom is the debut duo album by French trumpeter Airelle Besson and accordionist Lionel Suarez, released on January 30, 2026 via Bretelles Prod and Papillon Jaune. The record is the fruit of a decade-long musical partnership between the two, which began in 2015 at the Jazz sous les Pommiers festival in Coutances, France. Recorded at Alys Studio in October 2025 and mastered by Pierre Wandewaeter, the album presents 12 tracks — nine originals and three cover versions — across 45 minutes. Both artists bring substantial classical training and jazz credentials to the collaboration: Besson is an established figure on the European jazz scene as a composer, bandleader, and sought-after collaborator, while Suarez's playing carries a strong folkloric vein alongside his jazz pedigree, lending the album a distinctively French character that encompasses traces of bal musette and tango traditions.
The pairing of trumpet and accordion is unusual enough to invite curiosity, but as All About Jazz notes, the duo navigates the combination with joyous confidence, producing music that sits comfortably across chamber jazz, neo-classical, and French popular styles without firmly belonging to any one of them. The originals — including the title track, the energetic "La Course," and the atmospheric "Kyoto Dans la Brume" — showcase the rapport built over their decade of collaboration, while the three covers are equally instructive: Carla Bley's "Ida Lupino," Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays' "Au Lait" (from Offramp, 1982), and the standard "Answer Me." Reviewers have praised the album's delicate balance of sensitivity and passion, its melodic directness, and the way Besson and Suarez function as genuine conversational partners — Marlbank describing Suarez as "someone there to finish her sentences and to embark on his own new paragraphs."