2023-10-12 16:13:22
“It would make me happy if this concert was dedicated, you and us, to all those people who suffer for nothing from the toxicity of human beings. » Erik Truffaz, on stage for the opening of the Nancy Jazz Pulsations festival on Wednesday October 11, provokes an emotional silence, then long applause with these sober but poignant words. Delicately, the trumpeter remains in his role as musician but also places himself in a world torn apart by the Hamas attack against Israel, inviting his audience to this same splitting.
How can you enjoy a jazz festival when the world is tearing itself apart? By defending the right to beauty and art, without turning a blind eye and denying the evidence of serious times. « On stage something weird happens, I don’t know how, but I can touch souls with my sound.What brings me is to be in an imaginary world, to share it and to feel that people benefit from it.” confides Erik Truffaz, met a few hours before his concert.
“Make the world more beautiful for a little while”
“Our mission is to make the world more beautiful for a little while, adds the Franco-Swiss trumpeter. It’s a matter of the heart. » Erik Truffaz had no shortage of heart and breath that evening. With his lifelong acolytes, Alexis Anérilles (keyboards), Marcello Giuliani (bass), Matthis Pascaud (guitar), Raphaël Chassin (drums), they perform the soundtracks of major films. This film project gave rise to two albums, Rollin’ in April and Clap ! expected on October 27, both on the Blue Note label.
L’improvisation, splendor of jazz, is part of compositions by Georges Delerue, Philippe Sarde, Éric Demarsan, Serge Gainsbourg… «Our way of doing things is to take melodic structures with the unknown as a common thread. We work on a theme to see how we develop it, the unknown arrives and offers us something wonderful and magical. »
On the stage of the Salle Poirel that Sesam heated, a young Lorraine quintet from Metz, rises the slow voice of a trumpet, expanding the music of The street by Nino Rota while the lanky silhouette of Erik Truffaz, barefoot, sways to the rhythm. His virtuoso quintet sets slow tempos which suddenly take off in a melodic urgency. Short notes tear the air like a cry, others curl into volutes, some stand out, still others melt into the air. Each piece escapes upwards then finds appeasement towards silence.
The quintet plays collectively, in harmony
Things of life by Philippe Sarde, The Heist d’Ennio Morricone, Requiem for a jerk by Serge Gainsbourg, Contempt by Georges Delerue… The prodigious trumpet of Erik Truffaz punctuates complaints, celebrates triumphs, opens vast spaces of sound. Unleashed guitarists, galvanized drummer, combining keyboardist “the gentleness of the koala and the power of the lion”, according to Truffaz, the training is coherent, united. Never put at the service of the playmaker, the quintet plays collectively, in harmony.
In each composition, the theme opens up and develops. Repeat after repeat, the sounds become richer, the construction strengthens, takes flight. This is great art. The musicians chant the rhythm like a rock orchestra, with the sophistication of complex jazz chords. On a sober scenography, without visual gimmicks or blinding spots, Erik Truffaz evolves like a conductor setting the tempo with his hand.
The intensity and irony of the music of “Tontons flingueurs”, signed Michel Magne
Without images, without dialogue, without actors, visions of cinema resurface. The theme ofKind regards by John Barry deploys all its subtly reworked evocative power to smack and caress the ear before a surge of sound that captivates Nancy. A tightrope walker who crosses the stage giving the cadence of his whole body, Erik Truffaz raises the fever to conclude in style a piece in a thousand bursts of notes signed Michel Colombier for The Alpagueur.
What is the weather in Paris ? In a caressing swing, the quintet establishes an atmosphere of cool jazz and gypsy guitar for this composition by Alain Romans which marked the heyday of the Mr. Hulot’s vacation at Jacques Tati. At the time of the encore which will release the music of the Uncle gunslingers signed Michel Magne, Erik Truffaz turns towards his musicians to unleash their intensity and irony in a final incandescent crescendo.
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50 years of an inclusive festival
Nancy Jazz Pulsationslaunched in 1973, has been part of its territory since its beginnings.
L’exposition « Let’s play ! », with the Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy, retraces the 50 years of the festival with 50 photos of jazz stars and old posters recalling street brass bands, gospel choirs in Lorraine churches, free concerts, etc. (Poirel room in Nancy).
Nancy Jazz Act offers “Music Quarters” actions to audiences far from culture, with the social structures of the Grand Est and the “Musician Seeds” projects in schools.
Nancy Jazz Tour organizes 30 regional concerts with festival artists touring small towns.
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