Jazz à Juan, 60 years of musical passion!
(Part 1)
Audio 37:08
Saxophonist Kenny Garrett in full solo, during the 60th edition of "Jazz à Juan".
© Rivierakris
By: Joe Farmer Follow
42 min
For 60 years, the "Jazz à Juan" festival has invited the greatest figures of our time to the famous stage of the Gould pine forest in the extreme south-east of France.
Charles Mingus, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Al Jarreau, Stanley Clarke, Sarah Vaughan, they all came to Juan!
This year, the sixtieth anniversary celebrations brought together, on the same poster, artists as diverse as Kenny Barron, Gregory Porter, Amadou and Mariam, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Garrett or John McLaughlin… So many good reasons to strain our microphones!
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On July 11, 2021, it was the immense saxophonist Kenny Garrett who delighted the cheerful spectators with a few lyrical jazz flights. It must be said that this brilliant instrumentalist was very early perceived as the absolute virtuoso, whose inventive energy had conquered personalities as charismatic as Miles Davis, for example. Listening to Kenny Garrett, it is all the diversity of ancestral African cultures that is expressed. Passionate about Caribbean music, for several years he has been developing a tone deeply rooted in "L'épopée des Musiques Noires". On his next album
Sounds from the ancestors
, Kenny Garrett calls on the spirits of his elders. In the title
Soldiers of the Fields
, it evokes the slave revolt in Haiti whose sacrifice led to independence in 1804. This composition is also the reverence of a talented instrumentalist to his predecessors who, too, had to fight to be heard and to be respected .
Art Blakey's beating heart and Tony Allen's groove seem to resonate in this very reverent record.
Kenny Garrett also honors the late trumpeter Roy Hargrove, whose rhythmic and harmonic prowess he praises.
Kenny Garrett, July 11, 2021, in Juan-les-Pins.
© Joe Farmer / RFI
On stage, in Juan, Kenny Garrett easily conquered the audience. True jazz fans will also have noted his propensity to quote his heroes, Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Miles Davis. The echoes of
Body & Soul
,
A Love Supreme
or
Jean-Pierre
reminded us insidiously that Kenny Garrett was and remains a musician attached to tradition even if he knows how to weave through the meanders of Afro-planetary culture, from Guadeloupe gwoka to American rap, including the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti. Festival-goers were sometimes surprised at such an eclecticism but, above all, blown away by this ease and this jubilant fervor which animates his playing and illuminates his repertoire. Kenny Garrett is a real leader. He does not boast, he gives the artistic direction that his inspiration arouses. This quality is unique and identifies the great figures of our time.
A few days later, another former partner of Miles Davis was to charm jazz fans in Juan-les-Pins, but the weather conditions prompted the organizers to cancel this performance as a safety measure. It is true that very strong gusts of wind threatened the good performance of this eagerly awaited concert. John McLaughlin was however happy to perform again in front of a very enthusiastic crowd to present his new album
Liberation Time
.
As its name suggests, this project clearly manifests the need, for each of us, to find a space of freedom essential for our spiritual and psychological balance.
This disc is therefore the consequence of a pandemic which has severely affected our daily lives.
Music being a universal language, it is not difficult to understand the intention and the purpose of the famous British guitarist.
Very well surrounded by an international team, including the illustrious Étienne Mbappé on bass, John McLaughlin was delighted to share the fruit of intense reflection after months of confinement, paradoxically very productive, as he explained to our microphone during this meeting. 60th edition of Jazz à Juan!
→ The
Jazz
site
in Juan-les-Pins
John McLaughlin at Joe Farmer's microphone, July 13, 2021, during the 60th "Jazz à Juan" festival.
© Rivierakris
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