Recorded in Manhattan in the end of 2020, Three of a Kind is the first eponymous album of a three-headed group comprised of some of the best French Jazz musicians living in New York City, who surprisingly had never really played together before: guitarist Michael Valeanu, saxophonist Jon Boutellier and bassist Clovis Nicolas.

The intimacy of the trio, deprived of any percussion instrument, creates an ideal environment from which each musician’s unique sound is revealed with clarity and transparency. In their three way conversation, each syllable, sound or silence weaves a music created by three composers, three performers and three improvisers. Their exchanges are displayed like lights on a three-sided mirror, where each image is reflected on the two other sides.

Miroirs, composed by Valeanu, which opens the album, is articulated like a melody that would be conceived through a kaleidoscope. The fragments of the theme’s first notes are transformed and reflected gradually over the course of the song, like an image reflecting on a shattered mirror.

Jon Boutellier brought Trey of Hearts to the session, a mischievous and fast-paced composition written by his idol Thad Jones. Not very well known and seldom played, this song recalls the ferocious team of improvisers and arrangers that the trumpeter formed with the "twins" Frank Wess and Frank Foster in Count Basie's band.

Yatchan is one of Boutellier's originals, a waltz previously featured in Watt's, an earlier opus that the saxophonist recorded with French pianist Fred Nardin. Brought in at the last minute to the session, this new version, revisited and performed in one take only, exudes spontaneity.

Clovis Nicolas first wrote Dime Algo Lindo as an harmonic progression that was maturing in his head, that could be a good fit for a Brazilian song. "It is in this spirit that I imagined a melody for a samba that could be played by a horn, a flute, or even sang by a vocalist like João Gilberto.”

For Michael Valeanu, A Little Something simply evokes the idea of walking. "I think there are clues to be found in the music itself. You have to listen carefully to the steady rhythm of the double bass throughout the piece, and how it sets the pace for a leisurely stroll." Of course, the landscape changes a few times around our imaginary walker, whom maintains a steady rhythm to his/her journey.

Sonar begins like a prelude where the melody stands out from the harmonic progression like a bell with a constant rhythm. For Valeanu this sound is reminiscing of the "regular pulsation emitted at the bottom of the ocean by... a sonar! In retrospect, I think the floating nature of the piece also influenced my underwater experiences.”

Minor Thing is a contrafact that Nicolas wrote on the canvas of Duke Ellington's It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, with some rhythmic alterations, but, as the bassist points out, "without ever losing sight of the fact that the piece has to swing!” The shout chorus recalls the one that Sonny Rollins wrote on Without a Song, with that typical guitar/tenor sax unison sound.

The closer is Jon Boutellier’s arrangement of Reminiscing in Tempo. Written and recorded by Duke Ellington in May 1935, this great four movements fresco celebrated at the time the memory of the pianist’s mother, Daisy Ellington, who passed away at the early age of 56. Apart from Johnny Mandel (another legend who died in 2020), few musicians have ventured to cover this Ellingtonian "requiem". The trio does it with sweetness and delicacy, as a coda to the album.

Valeanu, Boutellier and Nicolas share a similar vision of Jazz music, that combines a solid technical requirement on their instrument with an affinity for beautiful melodies, as well as a common sensitivity as composers. Hearing them in such a minimalist and intimate setting brings out their unique musical voices to the front. They are, indeed, “Three of a Kind.”