The musical journeys of the Saint-Omer Jaaz Festival

2023-07-08 08:16:25
My Party by Laurent Coulondre.

Behind the stage and on one of its sides, the remains of the Saint-Bertin abbey in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais), founded in the 7th century and enlarged over the following centuries, suggest what was the majesty of the place. It is in this setting of stones in the garden surrounded by wrought iron spikes, where on the ground structures reconstruct the shape of the monument, that the evening concerts of the Saint-Omer Jaaz Festival have taken place since 2021. Jaaz with two “a”, wink and sign of identity to those of the Aa, channeled river, which passes not far.

Read also the review: Article reserved for our subscribers Saint-Omer, the meeting place for French jazz

For this 8th edition of the festival – founded in 2015 with a principle of free access to concerts and the promotion of the French scene – the evenings are devoted to large groups, from the octet to the big band. A theme that artistic director Laurent Cugny, pianist, composer, arranger, conductor, teacher and writer, indicates “came up little by little”a combination of some of his desires and the availability of orchestras.

This Friday, July 7 – the festival began on Thursday 6 at the Saint-Omer theater – the Meva Festa by pianist Laurent Coulondre and the Ka-Frobeat by flautist Magic Malik are playing. Two musical journeys where the codes of jazz, its practices, including solo improvisation, seek inspiration in other languages.

With Meva Festa, Laurent Coulondre’s octet goes towards Afro-Cuban expressions, salsa, South America. The band presents compositions from the album My Party, published in September 2022. The rhythmic figures often call for dancing – the children, having fun in the back of the garden, running here and there, getting into it – with breaks, movements which testify to a desire for research. The extended solo parts, the harmonic work of the alliance between the winds (trumpet, saxophone, trombone and flute), the melodic lyricism that irrigates the compositions, all of this enchants.

Joy

Then here is Ka-Frobeat led by Magic Malik. There also a byte. Whose name says it all: “Ka”, the traditional Guadeloupean drum – born in Ivory Coast, Magic Malik grew up in Guadeloupe –, et “Frobeat”, for afrobeat, which mixes traditional Nigerian music, jazz and funk, popularized by Fela Kuti (1938-1997). The directory comes from disk Ka-Frobeat, released in April 2022. The virtuoso flautist gives musicality the foreground and also sings, in Creole, explaining beforehand the main lines of the texts. Mon, Snake Flowerthe snake flower is a “bad luck story”another is the“History of a Hermit”a song evokes “time flies by”…

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