JAMMIN’ SUMMER SESSIONS

JUAN-LES PINS AND ANTIBES, JULY 2023

The Jammin’ Summer Sessions are a series of free concerts that are part of the Jazz à Juan Festival, and continue on after the main festival ends until 18th August. Mostly they take place on an outdoor stage in Juan’s Petit Pinéde (small pine grove) adjacent to the main Pinède Gould arena and in the evening before the main concerts.

There’s one band per session, with many of them having been selected after impressing at an edition of Jammin’ Juan, the very competitive late autumn jazz market place where bands play 35 minute showcases in front of promoters and festival bookers.

The Summer Sessions are an opportunity to hear bands play a longer set in more relaxed circumstances, and for the public the sessions are free and not ticketed.

DAVID GEORGELET AND FRIENDS, 11 July 2023

This band are the group Anbessa under another name and as Anbessa they had played a Summer Session the evening before. This second session was unusual as it took place at 11am and at the Médiathèque Albert Camus, Antibes with whom the Summer Sessions had formed a partnership.

Anbessa are a band on a mission to make the music of Manu Dibango (1933-2020)*, the Paris based Cameroonian saxophonist, vibraphonist, singer composer and arranger who
had a career that spanned six decades more widely known. They are well qualified to do so as some members of the band played and recorded with Dibango during the last decade of his career.

I had seen Anbessa in Paris just a few months before giving a vibrant performance that ended as a full on dance party.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/anbessa-homage-to-manu-dibango-studio-de-lermitage-paris-04-05-2023

The Paris gig demonstrated they would be an excellent band for a festival, while this session showed that they are equally at home playing a more low key concert in a club or arts centre.

Their set omitted ‘Soul Makossa’ the world wide hit for which Dibango is largely known to make a point because as Anbessa say “The repertoire of Manu (is.)..often reduced to only ‘Soul Makossa’.”

Of the nine tunes the band played only one wasn’t written by Manu Dibango. The exception was ‘Anbessa’ (The Lion in Amharic) which is the band’s tribute to Diabango from which they take their name, and which ended with a haunting valedictory chord.

The line-up of the six strong band was saxophones, marimba and vibraphone, bass trombone, lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums(David Georgelet). Generally their sound was that of Afro Jazz but the sophisticated arrangements had a great deal of melodic and rhythmic variation with frequent switches of soloists and of band members playing as a duo.

A highlight of Anbessa’s very enjoyable set was ‘Otetena Munja’ which they re-imagined as gospel/spiritual ballad. Throughout the band played with a joie de vivre that was very much in the spirit of Manu Dibango.

*Manu Dibango played at Brecon in 2009, a gig that was reviewed by the Jazz Mann
(https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/sunday-at-brecon-jazz-festival-9th-august-
2009)

SARAH LENKA QUARTET, 11 July 2023

Sarah Lenka is a jazz vocalist who is deep into the blues. On a hot evening when temperatures could have been similar to those in the southern USA, she sang songs about
“nobody knows my troubles with God”, advising “mammy don’t you marry a railroad man,” and that told us that “I’ve been mistreated”. She had an excellent group of musicians with her who supported her all the way, with guitarist Taofik Farah shining whenever he soloed.

Lenka has a very pure voice that arguably is not totally suited to singing the blues. But with her commitment and phrasing she makes the songs work. When she wasn’t singing the blues she was singing her own compositions, which were either sad or on the dark side. One song about putting on a brave face when a new immigrant to a country-” I fight every day to wake up with a smile” - was very moving.

Throughout Lenka involved the audience. She’s very good at this and had them eating out of her hand. Her last number was the civil rights anthem, Mavis Staples’ ‘Turn Me Around’ which Sarah Lenka changed into a feminist anthem with the support of the audience. It made a rousing end to the set.

ISHKERO 12 July 2023

Ishkero are a youngish band from Paris, all the members of which are in their mid to late twenties. They have known each other and played together for several years including at the second Jammin’ Juan market place in 2018 which is when I previously saw them.

Then they were talented progressive jazz-rock band but hadn’t totally found their own voice. Now four and a half years later and with three albums under their belt, they had developed. Their sound has moved more towards the rock end of the jazz rock spectrum but still had strong jazz roots. The instrumental line features lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, keys and flute/triangle, with the main soloist being the lead guitarist Victor Gasq who tended to play rock riffs, with a number of tasteful solos also coming from flautist Adrien Duterie.

The set consisted entirely of the group’s own compositions. There was plenty of variety. Nearly all the tunes had pleasing melodies, some had an ethereal psychedelic jazz quality and one number took an unexpected turn into frenzied free jazz before a softer psychedelic jazz ending. Their performance was warmly received by the audience.

Ishkero are one of just four bands currently selected by Jazz Migration who support emerging bands, and on this showing it is easy to see why. They are a band on the up.

CHI QUARTET, 14 July 2023

I had seen Chi Quartet at the most recent Jammin’ Juan market place in November 2022 when they had impressed individually and collectively but not quite enough to make it into my top picks. For this session a lot of the repertoire was the same but the performance was much stronger. Talking afterwards to leader, pianist and composer Tin-Chi Sun she said in November they had felt the pressure and been very nervous.

Their style can be described as chamber jazz. Tin-Chi Sun merges jazz and classical influences in her compositions which are inspired by a variety of sources that include a Cantonese folk song, the flatlands of the Netherlands (Chi Quartet is based in Rotterdam), and her late beloved Grandfather.

Tin-Chi Sun’s touch on the piano keys is superb. Also she sings the Cantonese folk song very beautifully. As a composer she is very skilled at conveying emotion and painting pictures for example the warm feelings for her grandfather, and what sounds like a hailstorm over Netherlands’ flat lands. The other members of the group also are very talented and with their leader they make a fine jazz quartet.

They were shouts of “Bravo “at the end of their set and one member of the audience commented that Chi Quartet would not be out of place on the Jazz à Juan main stage. It’s a view I agree with.

MARTIN SALEMI TRIO, 15 July 2023

This piano led trio was another of the groups I had previously heard at November’s Jammin Juan, and another group who impressed but had not quite made my top picks.

The trio open with Brussels based Salemi playing a finely nuanced solo which developed into a bright bluesy vamp underpinned by inventive playing from double bassist Boris Schmidt, which was the first of several excellent contributions from him. Leader Salemi played with precision and was another pianist who had great touch on the key while drummer Daniel Jonkers gave solid support.

The set, which I think consisted entirely of Salemi’s compositions, mixed meditative slightly downbeat numbers and upbeat ones. In the more meditative ones Salemi used the space between the notes to build tension and atmosphere. In one of the upbeat numbers humour was introduced, including a repeated phrase that had me imagining the Charlie Chaplin tramp character staggering down the road after one to many drinks, while another number that proved to be a crowd pleaser was a mix of blues, gospel, township jazz and rock with again some great double bass.

The trio saved their best ensemble playing for the last number which rounded of a very polished and professional set.

NEDDERMANN-SCHARLE DUO, 16 July 2023

This was a voice and keyboards (Meritxell Neddermann) and drums (Stéphane Scharlé) duo with a difference. The difference was they had a high concept electronics and
computer set up which not only gave drummer Scharlé a vast palette of sounds but transmitted the notes of Neddermann’s keyboard to Scharlé‘s computer so that the drums
would play the same notes.

At least I think that was what was happening but I have to admit I didn’t fully understand the explanation I was given by Stéphane Scharlé when he talked to me after the session. Nor was I clear about what impact this set up had on what we heard.

What was clear was that Meritxell Neddermann is a talented keyboard player able to change the mood in just a few short notes and who seemed to reference both Brad
Mehldau and Joey Calderazzo early on.

There was a strong thread of urban dance beats and electro-fuzz running through the set and an interesting range of sounds. While it wasn’t my sort of music it was exciting and adventurous, and one has to give credit to the Summer Sessions for being prepared to put on such an experimental group.

RIAHI/RAHOLA/HURTY, 18 July 2023

This was the second of the 11a.m sessions at the Médiathèque Albert Camus, Antibes. The Brussels based trio usually play as the Wajdi Riahi Trio, and under that name had played an evening Summer Session the day before. I had heard them at Jammin Juan in November where they had been one of my top picks so I had high expectations and I wasn’t disappointed.
(see https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/jammin-juan-2022-palais-des-congres-juan-les-pins-france-2nd-3rd-and-4th-november-2022)

Tunisian born pianist Riahi had to adapt to playing the small electric piano provided rather than a full piano he would normally use. He told me after the session that this had added an extra layer of uncertainty “as we weren’t sure what would happen”, and it had been very noticeable how closely the trio were listening and watching each other.

All three members contributed compositions to the set but they started with a version of Cole Porter’s ‘I Love You’ with Riahi playing a solo which in which notes seemed to cascade over each other, yet it never felt forced. Throughout the set different melodic ideas followed one another rapidly with double bassist Basile Rahola more than once taking the lead playing the melody.

Like many other groups, the trio had a number written during the pandemic’Memories of the Future Past’, a great title for a meditative introspective tune with the drums sounding like a clock ticking.

‘Piano in the House’ had something of an Afro- Latin beat over which Riahi played another fine solo though he did not have the inside of a piano available to reach into to re-create the sound of an oud which is what I’d heard him do previously. The number could also have been called ‘Drums in the House’ as there was an impressive solo from drummer Pierre Hurty.

This was another Summer Session that was very well received by a rapt audience, and which confirmed that the excellent Wajdi Riahi Trio should have a bright future.

OVERVIEW

The Wajdi Riahi Trio session was the last one I got to on this trip. The Summer Sessions go on to mid August and there’s more more high quality jazz to come as four more out of my six picks from November’s Jammin Juan are on the programme: Daniel Garcia Trio, DAÏDA, Tal Gamlieli Trio and Sanne Sanne. Doubtless some of the other bands yet to play will also be high quality.

Based on what I heard and saw this year, the Summer Sessions are going from strength to strength. Not only was the standard of the groups very high, with, to echo Joni Mitchell, bands ‘playing real good for free’, but the sessions were very well attended and the audiences very attentive. The Summer Sessions have grown into one of the highlights not only of Jazz à Juan but also of summer jazz on the Côte d’Azur.

COLIN MAY

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