Quatuor Ébène’s new jazz album ‘Milestones’ takes its name from the classic Miles Davis long-player from 1958, a time described by Miles Kington in The Gramophone Jazz Good CD Guide as ‘a magic period when jazz was oozing with self-confidence’, adding that ‘college kids felt bereft if they didn’t have a few Brubeck, Miles or Mingus LPs in their collection’. No Brubeck here, but Mingus is, twice, along with Coltrane and Davis, as well as repertoire Davis didn’t record (though perhaps played in gigs) such as Garner’s Misty and Bluesette by Toots Thielemans.

The Ébène’s earlier excursions into jazz and ‘Milestones’ are covered in an interview with Charlotte Gardner in the October issue. She picks out two numbers – Ana Maria by Wayne Shorter and the Davis-Coltrane All Blues – for special mention. Charles Mingus’s tribute to Lester Young, Goodbye Porkpie Hat, and The Chicken by Pee Wee Ellis are the choices of leader Pierre Colombet and second violinist Gabriel Le Magadure. Keep Charlotte’s profile handy, not least as an interpretative guide to the above-mentioned titles. Ébène’s testimony, straight from the horse’s mouth, is spot on, offering the listener an added insight into their insightful approach to these jazz standards.

Like a number of French musicians, jazz is second nature to them, the music coursing through their blood, Colombet emulating Grappelli’s hot jazz stylings in Bluesette or breaking free of convention in Mingus’s Fables of Faubus, with a grin reminiscent of Francis Poulenc. Misty is given a straightforward treatment, the tune lending itself to some delicious assorted harmonies below the stave, while Kenny Kirkland’s Dienda gently swings in their hands, the impressionistic excursions exquisitely turned. Miles, the title by which Milestones was originally known, captures all the effervescence of Davis’s original, with some brilliant solo work from Colombet, while in contrast the Ébène delve deeply into the nocturnal world of Monk’s ’Round Midnight, their sensuous interpretation conjuring up images of Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night. Mesmerising, as is this entire album.