62nd JAZZ à JUAN
Juan-les-Pins, France, July 2023

14 JULY

France’s national day is when the local authority sponsors Jazz à Juan, so that all tickets free and the music is followed by a firework display.

GUY MINTUS

Guy Mintus is an Israeli born pianist, composer, singer and arranger described in the programme as “possess(ing) the finesse of a trained concert pianist, the energy of a rock star, and the exploring spirit of a jazz musician ...(who) is able to create a musical playground filled with joy, spontaneity, groove, and humour.”

All these elements were present in his set. The first number ended with a thunderous crescendo which had me thinking Rachmaninov. The second was a version of Gershwin’s
‘I Got Rhythm ’ done as an entertaining gallop through different piano styles particularly stride and honky tonk. The audience loved it.

Mintus had his trio with him but the focus was very much on him. The drums and double bass were mainly a rhythm section backing him in contrast to those trios in which both drums and double bass have strong individual voices alongside the piano.

The third number was Mintus’ composition “What’s the Difference ?”. It was written, he said, “some years ago, at a time of great difficulty in Israel”. The question he poses is what’s the difference between Israeli, Arab and Christian children. There’s an on-line video with Mintus playing the lovely tune in a relaxed style and images of children. But the playing of it at this concert was much angrier perhaps because of the latest grim news
from Israel and Palestine.

He followed this by singing a song that he introduced as “from the great Israeli songbook” and which had some more thunderous Rachmaninov style playing interspersed with some quieter passages. A version of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ was next, into which Mintus inserted an excerpt from the Marseillaise to the applause of the audience.

The final number was a Chopin polonaise which was another vehicle for Mintus’ tongue-in-check pianistic virtuosity. He played it as it might sound if performed on a worn out upright before launching into a frantic performance of the minute waltz in which he played himself off his piano stool. This was pianism as entertainment which was entirely appropriate on the day when France celebrated her national day.

 

SOPHIE ALOUR

I was looking forward to this concert being a fan of combining jazz and middle eastern modes. Saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist and composer Sophie Alour has an impressive jazz track record. Winner of the “Instrumental Artist of the Year 2022” award at the Victories du Jazz, she’s played as part of Rhoda Scott’s Quintet and Scott’s Lady All Stars and has put out seven varied albums as leader between 2004 and 2020.

After an album of standards,‘Time for Love’ in 2018 it seems she decided to do something very different and her next album ‘Joy’ 2020 combined middle eastern music and jazz and had Mohammed Abozekry on oud and voice. Alour then received the Django Reinhardt Award from the French Jazz Academy in 2021.

When the oud player had to leave his replacement was his brother Abdullah Abozekry also on voice but playing a different instrument the saz, a long thin necked stringed Turkish instrument that’s plucked. It’s an instrument I’d only heard the played in a jazz context once before by UK based Swiss guitarist Nicolas Meier.

When Alour next returned to playing live she not only included the saz in the line -up but further expanded her exploration of the musics of other cultures and jazz by adding also darbouka, Irish fiddle and South Indian Carnatic singing alongside her jazz quartet (http://www.anteprimaproductions.com).

Tonight though only the saz and Carnatic singer, Raphaëlle Brochet were on stage with Alour and piano, double bass, and drums/percussion. A second drummer/percussionist joined the group from the second number.

Middle Eastern modes were noticeable from the beginning. The first number carried me to an Istanbul coffee house and featured powerful drumming and the atmospheric wordless vocals of Raphaëlle Brochet.

The second high tempo number featured impressive solos first from Alour on sax and then from pianist Damien Argentieri after which the two drummer /percussionists took over.

The third number began with a saz solo that sounded like a traditional tune and drew a response from the combination of Sophie Alour now on flute and the voice of Raphaëlle Brochet that could have been a folk tune from Western Europe before again the saz held sway and built excitingly until it sounded more like saz rock than saz jazz.

Alour did not confine her band to mixing jazz and middle eastern sounding music . The two drummer/percussionists had a number to themselves that became a witty percussion dialogue and made abundant use of a variety of hand percussion and the best whistling of the festival.

Next came some Afro Cuban swing dominated by Alour’s sax which ende with her getting a most satisfying deep growl from her instrument. Then the band headed back to the mix of middle east modes and jazz with a high tempo ensemble piece, after which Raphaëlle Brochet’s voice and Abdullah Abozekry’s saz joined forces in a delicate melody that sounded as if it might be a children’s song, with Alour joining in with a bird song like phrase on the flute which she repeated several times.

Their last number was rooted in mainstream contemporary jazz with strong ensemble playing and solo’s from Alour back on sax, her excellent pianist Damien Argentieri and which came to a timely end just as the first fireworks lit up the sky.

For much of the set the saz had been just another instrument in the rhythm section, albeit one that was drowned out occasionally, rather than an exotic curiosity, I was surprised too how well the South Indian Carnatic wordless vocals of Raphaëlle Brochet gelled with middle eastern modes and how well both gelled with the jazz quartet. The arranging which is presumably down to Alour, played a significant part in this. Overall the very unusual and possibly unique line-up worked well and Alour deserves to be applauded for the bold and adventurous path she’s taken.

 

15 JULY

BRAD MEHLDAU TRIO

I heard some fine jazz pianism during the main festival and the associated Summer Sessions but nothing quite compared with Brad Mehldau’s playing which was on a higher
plane. He seemed to build complexity from clarity and simplicity and from his wonderful touch on the piano keys. Even when he and his long standing trio of drummer Jeff Ballard and double bassist Larry Grenadier were in chamber jazz mode, Mehldau individually and the trio collectively couldn’t help but groove.

They opened with Mehldau setting up a dynamic between left and right hands before Ballard’s propulsive drumming increased the trio’s tempo as the tune unfolded so that they were speeding along until the narrative ran down in a manner reminiscent of the metronomes petering out in Ligeti’s ‘Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes’.

The next number started with a sinuous double bass solo from Grenadier that morphed into a hypnotic repeated figure which then underpinned relaxed unhurried playing from Mehldau. Grenadier soloed again in the following tune as did Ballard who got a marching rhythm going on the drums.

The dialogue between the trio members was superb particularly in the next four numbers, the second of which was a delicate ten minute version of Cole Porter’s ‘I
Concentrate on You’. In this section of the concert sometimes the tune was taken so far away from the original by Mehldau that you wondered if he would get back home.  However, in a sparse and elegiac version of Hoagy Carmichael’s ’ The Nearness of You ‘, Mehldau stuck closely to the original doing a lot with relatively few notes, and then adding an elegant coda.

The trio’s concert came to a rousing end with a high energy encore with Grenadier’s driving double bass solo and the call and response between Melhdau’s piano and Ballard’s drums. It brought most of the audience to their feet to applaud what had been a consummate set played with the heart as well as with the head.

BRANFORD MARSALIS QUARTET

The Branford Marsalis Quartet took to the stage just 24 hours after playing at London’s Barbican. Despite the rapid turn around there wasn’t any sign of travel tiredness about their performance. The long running quartet of Marsalis and pianist Joey Calderazzo (joined 1997), double bassist Eric Revis (joined 1999) and newest member drummer Justin Faulkner (joined 2009) had an almost telepathic understanding and a joy both in playing with each other and in the music.

There were several compositions by members of the group starting with the opener, Joey Calderazzo’s ’ The Mighty Sword’. After Marsalis’s brief soprano solo Calderazzo took over and the quartet in effect became the Joey Calderazzo trio with Faulkner’s powerful drumming supporting Calderazzo’s muscular, explosive playing that contrasted sharply with that of Meldhau.

Next came the quartet’s high tempo treatment of Keith Jarrett’s ‘Long as You Know You Are Living Yours’ which was a hot mix of post bop, middle eastern scales, country blues, free jazz and township jazz. If there ever had been a group jointly led by Sonny Rollins and Abdullah Ibrahim their version of this number might have sounded similar.

After these two high energy numbers the minimalist lyricism of Calderazzo’s ’ Conversation Among the Ruins’, was a welcome counterpoint, with Marsalis again expressive on soprano sax and Faulkner using just his hands to re-create the sound of a djembe,

For the quartet’s update of Sammy Fain’s ’ 1931 song, ‘When I Take My Sugar to Tea’ Marsalis switched to tenor and played an agile cadenza that was followed by a Calderazzo solo. But this number belonged to Revis and to Faulkner who both had delightful solos, during which each made musical jokes that had the rapt audience laughing. Meanwhile Marsalis wandered off stage for about 4 or 5 minutes, and at one point Calderazzo looked
over his shoulder and appeared concerned that he had not yet come back

Marsalis did return in time to play his own composition ‘A Thousand Autumns’. The quartet played this ballad with intensity until the tune faded away with Marsalis using just his breath for the final notes. Next we were plunged into the totally different unruly free jazz world of Eric Revis’ ‘Nilaste’ with Marsalis playing no holds barred soprano and Calderazzo trying to take the piano speed record.

Then it was the encore which was a joyous version of Sonny Rollins’ ‘Oleo’. It brought what was an engrossing concert from first to last note to a joyous conclusion.

 

16 JULY

Travel problems resulted in the concerts having to have later start times and therefore later finish times. While this had no impact on the first concert, Sixun’s concert finished well after midnight which might have contributed to some of the audience not staying to the end.

THOMAS DUTRONIC, STOCHELO ROSENBERG, ROCKY GRESSET FEAT THOMAS BRAMERIE

This was a concert of Jazz Manouche, with a drum free jazz manouche line-up of three acoustic guitars and the double bass of Thomas Bramerie.

Thomas Dutronic is a singer as well as a jazz manouche guitarist and the set was a mix of songs and instrumentals. The songs were more in the style of French chanson than jazz with Dutronic sometimes almost whispering his vocals and at other times sounding as if he was bringing the equivalent of a Gallic shrug of the shoulders into his singing.

He showed that he was a good manounche guitarist but in this he was outshone by Stochelo Rosenberg . Rosenberg is from the Sinti sub group of Romani people and started playing aged 10. With two cousins he formed the Rosenburg Trio in 1989. With his amazingly nimble and speedy fingers and the precision of his playing he stole the show.

Though there were a couple of songs that Dutronic introduced as new ones the set was mainly songs and tunes well known to the big audience, like Dutronic’s own
’ J’aime plus Paris’, the Sidney Bechet composition, ‘Petite Fleur’ and Django Reinhardt’s well known tune ’ Nuages’. Two dancers even came on and jived French style to the music.

There was a close rapport between the good humoured talkative Dutronic and the audience and this created an intimate atmosphere; it was as if this concert was happening
in someone’s front room.

When it came to the finale Stochelo Rosenberg played unbelievably fast. Perhaps it was showboating, but it was dazzling conclusion to what was a very French set.

SIXUN

Founded in 1984, Sixun are a band who were a flagship group of European jazz fusion in the 80’s and 90’s. They found one another again during the pandemic, recorded a new album, ‘Unixsity’, and now were back playing live after thirteen years of not doing so.

The group’s name means six as one, and they lived up to this in various ways. There was some fine soloing particularly from lead guitarist Louis Weisberg , who looked rather like fellow guitarist John Mclaughlin, and from Alain Debiossat, mainly on soprano sax but also on alto sax and flute. The interplay between them was sharp too, but whatever they played was always in service to the music and the group’s overall sound. So no showboating.

Throughout the ensemble playing was tight as if this was the latest concert in a long tour and not one of the first back after a long hiatus from playing live. The arranging was high quality with solos and ensemble passages well integrated and the contributions of the individual instruments being able to be heard clearly.

Overall Sixun’s music was an uplifting combination of melody and rhythm towards the jazz end of the jazz rock spectrum but that drew on other genres and cultures as well.

‘Essaouria’, a tune named after the Moroccan coastal town which hosts an annual Gnawa music festival, drew on Gnawa music. Spanish rhythms wound sinuously through another number and there was an out and out funk based tune. This later tune sounded like the band might have been influenced by Ian Dury’s ‘Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll’ from 1977 or by Ornette Coleman’s tune ‘Ramblin’ from1959, the bass line of which was lifted by Dury for his song. But any such influence was relatively fleeting as Sixun’ made sure that they owned the tune.

Back in 2006 Sixun got an award for a live album. On this showing they’ve lost none of their sparkle for playing live. My only reservation was that the volume of the bass guitar was too high at times, unbalancing the collective sound somewhat but this is only a small quibble.

It could have been disappointing for them that the arena emptied significantly after Thomas Dutronic and co finished, and that people continued to drift away during their set perhaps due to the lateness of the hour. By their finale they were playing to an arena only about a quarter full. But to their credit if they were disappointed it didn’t show in their playing which continued to be committed and uplifting, and earned them a well deserved ovation from those that remained to the end.

 

OVERVIEW

The hybrid model continues to be important for Jazz à Juan. Out of the evenings I attended it was visible that the evening with Brad Mehldau and Branford Marsalis had the lowest attendance despite both being major stars in the jazz firmament. This is not a new phenomenon. I recall the same thing happening when the late Wayne Shorter last played the festival.

Overall the festival was well attended with an average occupancy rate of 90% according to official figures, with the three top selling evenings being those with Nile Rodgers and Chic, Ludovico Einaudi and Melody Gardot.

There was good mix of touring American jazz stars and French Jazz talent. Lizz Wright , Brad Mehldau and Branford Marsalis gave performances that were high quality, Jacob Collier’s perhaps was a window into music of the future. I enjoyed discovering the adventurous Sophie Alour, the lightening fingered Stochelo Rosenberg and the Sixun ensemble, while Matthis Pascaud and Hugh Coltman’s ‘Night Trippin’ was something different but worthwhile.

Unfortunately I did not get to Samara Joy (10th July) who performed before I arrived. Nor did I see Melody Gardot (20th July), who invited capoeira fighters/dancers to the stage, as I chose to be at the Nice Jazz Festival that night as Kurt Elling and Herbie Hancock were on the bill there.

There were some new aspects to Jazz à Juan this year. The festival village had been improved, and one could play mini-boulle before the evening’s concert, and there was an after party every night on the beach that proved very popular. Also the festival significantly improved it’s recycling.

As to further developments, my wish list would include Jazz à Juan and the Nice Jazz Festival finding a way to avoid their dates clashing. Also, I hope that Jazz à Juan
might include in the main programme some of the excellent jazz groups who have proven their quality at the autumn Jammin’ Juan market place and /or at the Jammin’ Summer Sessions . Finally I hope that next year after the concerts there might be a late night shuttle bus service from Juan to Cannes and to Nice.

COLIN MAY

blog comments powered by Disqus