by Colin May
November 10, 2024
Guest contributor Colin May enjoys the music of five different acts at this annual showcase event. Performers include Pablo Murgier, Christophe Imbs, Giorgi Mikadze, mohs and Ink.
Jammin’ Juan 2024
Palais des Congress, Juan-les-Pins
6th-8th November 2024
PROLOGUE
Every summer for decades jazz legends have come to the small French Mediterranean resort of Juan-les-Pins to play at the long-running Jazz A Juan festival. With the establishment of Jammin’ Juan it is now also a place to discover emerging talent.
This was the jazz market place’s seventh edition and there were over a hundred applications for the eighteen 35-minute showcase slots. Though most of the groups selected were based in France, in the bands were musicians not only from elsewhere in Europe and but from South America, Cuba, the Middle East, North Africa, and West Africa.
This cultural mix was reflected in the fascinating diversity of sounds and the presence of some instruments not usually associated with jazz. For instance on day one there was a group led by an oud player originally from Turkey but now based in Amsterdam, another group led by a pianist with an Argentinian background and with a bandoneon player in the band, and also a showcase from a singer originally from Algeria who played the bendir and whose performance was very influenced by her heritage.
As was to be expected with only about one in six of applicants being selected, all the groups that were successful performed at a high standard. I have chosen to highlight five of the many diverse showcases that I enjoyed.
PABLO MURGIER QUARTET
Pianist / composer Pablo Murgier originally from Buenos Aires is now based in Paris. He and his quartet grabbed my attention from the start with an opening number that combined melody and drive. After a fine piano solo from Murgier it ended with a dramatic climax.
The set featured two or three more fine solos from Murgier who also has written a symphony for classical orchestra. There was also excellent work from double bassist Romain Lecuyer, which being a fan of the double bass I enjoyed. Simone Tolomeo’s bandoneon added further Argentinian colour.
All the music was from Murgier’s latest crowd funded album ‘Gare du Sud’. I liked his expressive compositions about weather. In ‘Sirocco’ you could feel the heat that the wind from the Sahara can bring while in ‘Les Grêles’, hail, another dramatic number, you could hear the hailstones striking the ground.
This was a lively set played with plenty of joie de vivre.
CHRISTOPHE IMBS
What I found intriguing about the playing of Strasbourg based pianist -composer Christophe Imbs and his three excellent colleagues was that their music somehow invited you in.
How this happened was somewhat mysterious, especially as much of what they played was introspective. Imbs’ compositions unfurled gradually through phrases which either repeated or just changed very slightly next time around. Perhaps this allowed you time to get close to the music should you want too.
He used an effects board to modify the sound of the piano. The results were very discreet even gentle. All the numbers played were composed by him and from his latest album, his third, “Soft Power”.
The album’s title was a good description of his showcase. As well as the slowly unfolding rather delicate passages, there was some challenging and fiercely edgy playing. In one number Imbs and impressive young tenor saxophonist Baptiste Stanek not so much de constructed a melody as destroyed it, taking us into a splendidly chaotic sound world.
Imbs quirky style of on-stage chat, which was to tell self-deprecating stories in which the joke was on him, added my enjoyment.
Along with saxophonist Stanek, the strong rhythm section of double bassist Joan Eche-Puig and drummer Elie Martin-Charriere made a telling contribution to what was a fine ensemble performance and one not just dominated by Imbs piano.
GIORGI MIKADZE TRIO
My immediate reaction to this showcase was ‘Wow that was exhilarating’. This was because of the pianism of Giorgi Mikadze. He is able to play very, very fast for several minutes. I found it hard to believe that anyone could play at that speed with such precision for that long.
Mikadze is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Trained in the Russian school and a winner of international classical music competitions, he was born in Tbilisi, Georgia and currently is on a mission to bring the musical heritage of Georgia to wider attention.
His showcase consisted of his take on Georgian music from different genres - classical, film themes, popular song and folkloric. The title of his most recent album ‘Face to Face’, presumably is an allusion to bringing Georgian music face to face with jazz.
The other members of his trio youthful Cyril Drape, double bass, and Raphael Pannier, drums, did great work in keeping abreast of Mikadze. There was a strong synergy between Mikadze and Pannier with a lot of eye contact in the super high-speed moments when they seemed to drive each other on. Mikadze said the pair went back a long way having been students at Berklee at the same time.
On reflection the high-speed playing that was such a feature of the trio’s opening and closing numbers actually wasn’t the highlight of the showcase, intoxicating as it was. Rather it was a much slower paced short piece based on Georgian polyphony that Mikadze called an interlude and played solo. To my ears it was the most achingly beautiful music of the three days.
https://couleursjazz.fr/giorgi-mikadze-trio-face-to-face
mohs
mohs are a young Swiss quartet whose mix of jazz, electronica and beats veered towards ambient dream-like soundscapes. The title of their second and most recent album ’Mirage’ is a good clue to their style of music.
The quartet’s line up of trumpet, lead guitar, bass guitar and drums with both trumpet and lead guitar augmented by electronic effects, gelled well melodically. It was fascinating to see trumpeter Zacharie Kyst playing the trumpet one handed while simultaneously using his other hand to ‘play’ his effects panel.
The drawn out slow soaring trumpet notes and guitar washes created a contemplative vibe that was easy to relax into and enjoy. I also liked that their music did have a few rough edges occasionally as when Kyst fed in effects to momentarily coarsen the sound of his trumpet.
mohs’ style of music is not one I usually favour, but they are good at what they do and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them.
INK
As a long-standing fan of music from West Africa I had been eagerly looking forward to hearing Ink, who are seven musicians, five from France and two from Guinea-Bissau in West Africa who brought vocals and traditional instruments - djembe, koras and a balafon- to the mix.
The music they played was all from this line-up’s debut album ’African Roots’, released this year. In the performance there were distinct passages of West African music and of jazz, but it was so well arranged and played that they complimented each other very well. For example the opening number started with a lovely piece of balafon playing with the tune then being taken up by the rest of the band and translated into the language of contemporary jazz. One of the numbers, I think it might have been called ‘Tchemogo’ was one of the best I’ve heard at integrating the two traditions.
Losso Keita’s warm voice and vocals sung in his own language were very attractive and Drissa Dembele added some jazzy touches to his delightful balafon playing, at one point creating non-traditional balafon sounds by striking and scraping the keys with the ‘wrong’ end of the mallets.
The French jazz players picked up on the West African rhythms and also had space for some straight-ahead jazz playing, with two or three sparkling solos coming from pianist Pierre- Alain Goualch.
It was an upbeat and warm set, and the audience gave Ink one of the biggest cheers I heard during this year’s Jammin’ Juan. The band’s French drummer Victor Gachet said that it had taken a long time for the French and African musicians to understand one another. On the evidence of their 35-minute showcase I’d say the effort was well worth it.
For further information about Jammin’ Juan 2024 and the full programme and profiles of all the artists please see https://jammin.jazzajuan.com/en/
COLIN MAY