Ariane Racicot - Envolée
She just opened for the Lincoln Centre Orchestra in Montreal
![Ariane Racicot - Envolée](/content/images/size/w1200/2022/06/ariane-racicot.jpg)
Ariane Racicot is a modern jazz pianist from Montréal who released her first album, Envolée, on May 6, 2022 via Multiple Chord Music.
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Album review
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It's an odd pairing musically, but Ariane opened for Wynston Marsalis' Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra on June 30, 2022 at the Montréal jazz festival. She wrote on Facebook, originally in French:
"I'm so happy and proud to have played this opening set at the Place des Arts, for my very first time at the Montréal International Jazz Festival!
It lasted only 35 minutes, 4 tunes, but what a feeling of being applauded and having a standing ovation of 3000 people. The energy was just amazing. It just makes me want to keep working hard and dreaming of filling rooms 💪
I also shook hands with Wynton Marsalis backstage, I was very happy to meet him 😃
Thank you to those who came to see me, thank you to those who follow and encourage me!"
![](https://www.rhythmchanges.ca/content/images/2022/06/ariane-racicot-band.jpg)
Envolée is not Wynton music at all: it's prog-rock influenced modern jazz in the lineage of Chick Corea to Hiromi. But it makes sense for a pianist who got views in the olden days of YouTube with a city piano cover of BoRhap.
"Bicycle Ride" is the standout track. The grooves are all there with everything from McCoy-style piano power chords and voicings to a proper breakdown, and the trio is lifting off in flight – that's what envolée means. Ariane expertly uses the whole range of the piano to make the band sound huge.
The fusion-driven electric bass sounds of Antoine Rochefort are key to the album. You hear the extra-low fifth string quite often, which helps get below the piano riffs in the mix.
Guillaume Picard sounds like he has a big drumset in front of him and knows how to use it. When Ariane's piano goes higher in the final track, "À ciel ouvert", Guillaume goes to the tom-toms – and even double kick drum pedals – to keeps pushing the arrangement forward. Some sections in this track are the hardest-rocking parts of Envolée, but the very, very end is the most intimate moment.
This isn't one of those progressive music albums that feels long and overextended; it's just 32 minutes long with six tracks. Envolée both hits hard and leaves room for imagination – and I'm excited to say I have no idea what Ariane will do next. Once you take off, it feels like you can do anything.