2023-05-13 08:28:01
The cross : Jazz sous les Pommiers opens the summer season and sets the tone. What will be the highlights of the jazz summer and the artists to discover?
Denis Le Bas : Among many artists not to be missed, I would mention the young virtuoso cellist and singer Ana Carla Maza, who celebrates Cuban music today with incredible charisma and the violinist Théo Ceccaldi who, with the Ethiopian group Kutu and Mauritanian diva and morello cherry, Noura Mint Seymali revisits African jazz from home.
There is also the Norwegian singer Marja Mortensson who interprets a traditional song (the Joik) made of melodic sounds, cries, murmurs, as well as the legendary drummer Daniel Humair.
We are fortunate to have a cathedral in Coutances and we schedule concerts there that make sense in this place, such as that of the Triumviret staged by one of the greatest French double bassists, Jean-Philippe Viret or the tribute paid to Stan Getz by bassist Sylvain Rifflet.
Dee Dee Bridgewater, the guest of honor at Jazz sous les pommiers, embodies the return of great American artists to France…
DLB : Our festival is behind Dee Dee’s return to France, where we hadn’t seen her for years. “We Love Ella”, his creation in tribute to Ella Fitgerald with the seventeen musicians of The Amazing Keystone Big Band, will perform on several stages in France, at the Django Reinhardt festivals in Fontainebleau, in Juan-les-Pins, Jazz in Come to the Olympia… This repertoire suits her like a glove!
Have the festivals left with the same dynamism as before the Covid?
DLB : Yes, here we go again! At Jazz sous les pommiers, we had kept the flame alive by managing to hold all our editions in restricted formats. This year for the 42nd edition, we feel a real desire from the public to find the life of before and even more, to keep moments when we do ourselves good when the daily life is not easy.
Even if the financial conditions are tighter, the concerts are little bubbles of happiness where we regenerate in sharing. These suspended times are more important to the heart and have even more importance than before, it seems to me. But it is not duplicable in all areas of culture for the moment.
What are the assets of jazz explaining this new ardor of the public?
DLB : The rejuvenation of artists is very important! We are fervent defenders of the new French jazz scene, inventive, full of ideas and energy. Jazz rubs shoulders with other music, it will dig here and there as it has always done. This music is running with a lot of talent.
Jazz under the apple trees has also been an event dear to local life for 42 years…
DLB : We work year-round with artists in residence – this year Fidel Fourneyron and Théo Ceccaldi – who help jazz audiences grow and open up through daily fieldwork. Coutances is a town of 8,000 inhabitants, rural, and something very strong happens there during Jazz under the apple trees.
We sell around 38,000 show tickets and 75,000 visitors walk around town and enjoy the free shows. We have 450 volunteers who present themselves faithfully without the need to launch a call for applications. At the local level, everyone is proud of this festival and ready to give a little of themselves so that the party is beautiful and continues.
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