We're beginning today with the English bassist Matt Ridley, a name familiar to those who listen to European jazz and have the habit of looking at the composition of the bands. Many of them invite each other on the albums they work on and form a community that generously shares its values. Matt Ridley is without doubt one of the busiest instrumentalists, as is a very serious and talented composer. His albums combine many styles, maybe too many, but his exceptional ability to compose and to choose musicians is indisputable. The most balanced of them is "The Antidote", released in 2021. I listened to him fascinated by the modern sound, the sophisticated composition without grandiloquence, which invites to audition and doesn't put barriers of perception. An elegant orchestrated album, with riffs and formulas reminiscent of the jazz rock of the '70s and a proportion between electric and acoustic specific to new productions. The band is well connected, the solos don't fight each other, and the thing that attracts more from this album and makes it a special work is the relationship between Matt Ridley's acoustic bass and Ant Law's electric guitar. Listened to in depth, "The Antidote" is an album that defines contemporary European jazz and raises it to a universal, accessible and comprehensive language.