Join The Club : Kind of Blue
Xerjoff (2012)

So well mixed as many Xerjoff. The dominance is a very powdery white floral with some bitterness. There are aldehydes on top and spices at the bottom. Lovely and totally unisex.

Wow! Any mention of my favorite Miles Davis album in a FRAGRANCE will catch my attention for sure. :-)

Notes: Aldehydes, powdery notes, carnation, narcissus, orange blossom, iris, sandalwood, cardamom, spicy notes, rose

Join the Club: Kind of Blue is a dreamy, deep and dark spicy-boozy experience. It truly paints a picture of the ironic settings of jazz clubs: Cheerful yet morose, classy yet obscene, showy yet modest, reserved yet unhinged, consonant yet full of conflict within. The feeling of so many souls gathered for so many reasons in a show of hands on stage, designed to move them in so many ways intended or otherwise. And the puzzle of the wildly talented musical wizards who wear their masks each night, belying the often turbulent, troublesome lives led away from the white-hot spotlight they occupy. (Miles Davis epitomized this greatly.)

Kind of Blue is a truly human scent, reminding me of Stephane Humbert Lucas 777's Mortal Skin fragrance. The floral notes in here are so remarkably incorporated, resembling things like the expensive perfumes worn by women in the audience of a jazz club, or the ladies' corsages and / or flower bouquets showered on the artist on stage in appreciation. There's a bright freshness plus dark melancholy to the florals that I can connect with - as one who has performed musically on stages in my own past. Xerjoff's noses made sure not to let the individual notes overshadow each other, but instead to synergize into a truly impressionistic piece that many (not all) can appreciate.

As a whole, Kind of Blue - like 777's Mortal Skin - doesn't seem so much about identifying the individual notes outright (it can be done, with some concentration IMO); rather, it's the whole picture that's been painted and standing before you, ready for your individual perceptions and experiences to color your opinions how they will. For me, Kind of Blue was an emotional experience, where I not only connected with the likes of Miles Davis and his ilk from the annals of jazz history...but also, to my own performances as a musician.

It's a Xerjoff so the blend quality's there and this has more personality than the line usually delivers. It's a very floral scent with touches of jasmine over a semi-oriental base and a prominent, narcotic narcissus center stage. The narcissus is the most fascinating part of it because it really does smell like they managed to synthesize the real thing quite well – and narcissus smells amazing. A good amount of character to this one, but it doesn't offer much more than a natural-smelling floral with a creamy, C-11 style base. Exotic, rich, alluring, it reminds me a little of Tom Ford's Shanghai Lily only way more amped up. One of the better Xerjoff's to my nose.

The opening of Kind of Blue is intriguing, a well-executed dense floral accord with a gloomy vibe and a dry-gourmand underlying accord of coffee-like notes, tonka, amber, benzoin, with a soapy-aldehydes roundness and a narcotic, rich heart stuffed with high-quality narcissus notes. I also detect a hint of rose and a subtle base creaminess which may be due to ylang or white musks. A microscopic hint of fruits. Thick and "overwhelming" at first, thanks to the majestic narcotic power of narcissus, which the softens and sweetens as minutes pass. After about a couple of hours it evolves on a powdery-aldehydes accord with still an "edible" side (the accord is quite similar to Xerjoff' Shunkoin, that sort of coconut-tonka-nuts mix, quite light here but still detectable). Overall I find this a well-made fragrance with a lot of interesting nuances and a general "consistency", with a peculiar Oriental-exotic vibe, not in the fruity sense, but rather of a sort of sacred mysticism, and more specifically, of buildings and statues. The powdery side has a in fact a slight "chalky" note which makes me think of temples and sacred white statues buried among branches, floral bushes and grassy landscapes. Finally there is also a nice, azure salty breeze, which may be a side-note of aldehydes, however it gives quite a nice-fitting "aeriality" and dimensionality to the scent, contributing in creating the evocative and quite clear "landscape" I referred above. The drydown is pleasant and persistent, a really elegant floral-aldehydes accord on a mellow, velvety powdery sheet, cozy and discreet. Not a masterpiece to be honest, but surely a great distinctive scent.

7,5-8/10

Kind of Blue by Xerjoff JTC is one of the precious juices taking part to the "private" Join the Club Collection and is a "cozy" fragrance aimed to be the aroma of musical fascination, the dark/blue jazz-blues notes, brass saxophones and the allure of the "cool" and glamour cinema icons. I have to say that the juice itself conjures with its balminess the silky musicality of the quality musical notes while we can't say for sure to be dealing with a dark smokey potion which would be on the contrary ideal in order to arouse such sort of "velvety smooth" conjurations (jazz notes, smooth melodies, operettas, cocktails, dark ladies, black musicians, cozy dark/blue down town venues, Harlem, Chicago, New Orleans). The aroma itself conjures me more than vaguely ELDO Noel au Balcon since I detect by soon a sort of balmy/honeyed (well balanced) fruity accord of orange blossoms and probably apricot enveloped by a smooth base of soft vanilla, mild cinnamon, smooth musk and subtle white floral patterns (may be jasmine, lotus, freesia and neroli). Hints of patchouli and probably tonka contributes to darken the final impact which performs in my opinion like a sort of final soapiness (with hints of benzoin and amber) well rounded by seasoned woods, a sheer tobacco presence and with a more than remote rooty and vegetal undertone. There is anyway a subtle sophisticated almost dissonant (pollen/amber/musk/aqueous flowers type of) undertone conjuring me vaguely the Allure's (or Jul et Mad Terrasse a S.Germain's) glamour appeal.

Don't Join the ClubOr [I]Stay Away from the Club[/I] in this case.Opens with a soft orange blossom gripped by a very firm aldehyhde and a bit of bergamot.Shortly jasmine and tuberose make their presence. The tuberose is not a a voluptuous one like in Fracas or Beyond Love. It is very reminiscent of the tuberose in [I]A Travers le Miroir by Thierry Mugler[/I].The mid notes are comprised of a floral accord, warm spices, benzoin and a mediocre amber.At this stage there is no particular floral note standing out. What has changed is the addition of a nondescript spice accord. Warm and glowing as opposed to perky like cardamom or pulsating clove. Very nondescript warm spices. The mid feels very congested. Nothing stands out, nothing is shining yet there is a lot of things going on.Its like rush hour at the train station. A lot going on but its all irrelevant.[img]http://www.railfanwindow.com/gallery2/d/133098-2/DSC_3540.jpg[/img]It collapses towards the end. The floral accord has been eradicated by a rabid aldehyde/generic dry down accord.Smells harsh and very synthetic.I wish I had access to a shower at work. So I can rid myself of it and spray something proper on.Pros: Cons: synthetic mess "