2023-07-30 17:17:32
“Do you want to sing? Sing! Want to dance? Dance! » This slogan made the link between the two artists who succeeded each other on Saturday evening under the vast marquee of the Marciac jazz festival. American bassist Endea Owens and Belgian singer and guitarist Selah Sue each spoke of the energy they receive from the public and which pushes them to the limits of their talents. An exchange, warm and feverish, which is one of the hallmarks of the Gers musical rendezvous, which celebrates its forty-fifth edition this year.
Sparkling jazz
Endea Owens is a double bass virtuoso. Coming from the Juilliard School, private conservatory of music and performing arts in New York, of international reputation, she performs long solos which alternate nervous attacks, slow tempos allowing the deep sounds of her instrument to resonate, playing in particular with the lowest notes. But she also behaves like the leader of a group of six musicians, who knows how to make jazz sparkle.
Throughout his compositions, Kris Johnson’s trumpet launches his sparkling trills, Louis Fouché’s alto saxophone embroiders his melodies, Lee Pearson’s drums punctuate his rhythms by blending sonorities through recourse to an extensive collection of drumsticks, the piano Keith Brown sings and the magnificent voice of Shenel Johns culminates in explosive and playful highs.
Revenge without revanchism
The main plot of the concert affirms the personality of a strong woman whose title is one of the compositions Revenge. But Endea Owens does not switch to revanchism. On the contrary, she wants joy to circulate. In the spirit of certain American Protestant churches, she links her music to a spirituality of self-reflection and sharing. She invites her audience to share the common energy – and love, she insists – released during the show.
Selah Sue is on a completely different register. The singer, multi-award winning in her country and who has a young audience in France, rather slips into the skin of a star. She puts on a show using emotional registers, bordering on voyeurism. Some of his songs – in English – from his latest album, Persona, are inspired by recent psychotherapy. An explosive and fragile optimism emerges, a gentle energy when accompanied by her acoustic guitar, but excessively noisy when the musicians around her release their decibels.
Intimate confidences and fighting speeches
Leather pants and kimono sporting the stripes of a panther, Selah Sue displays a feminine power alternating between intimate confidences and fighting speeches. It unleashes the flashes of the electric guitar, the lightning of the bass, the rumbles of the drums, and the scansions of the trio of female voices that accompany it.
His songs are about fear, shame, courage, hope. One recounts his use of antidepressants. Another is dedicated to his mother and dedicated “to all mothers, and to children, too”. Very contemporary themes, which describe loneliness in an individualistic society and the energy deployed to recreate a community.
That of the marquee of Marciac did not fail him, this July 29, even if spectators left before being completely stunned by the decibels. Such a spectacle requires letting go.
#Jazz #Marciac #leader #star