Spotlight on French Jazz (Part One) - 2013
(by Ken Pickering
Artistic Director)
Building on the success
of this very special program in 2012, we’re especially pleased to bring a
second edition of Spotlight on French Jazz to the festival this year in partnership
with Institut Français & the Consulat Général de France à Vancouver. There
are five distinctive projects in this year’s Spotlight program, three of which are
of a collaborative nature. Let’s have a look at what we’ve got.
June 21 – The Ironworks – 9pm
Francois Tusques
On the American side of
this project, the powerhouse rhythm section and long time pillars of the scene William Parker ((Cecil Taylor, Frank
Lowe, Matthew Shipp and his own ensembles) and Hamid Drake (Don Cherry, David Murray, Pharoah Sanders and dozens
more) probably need little introduction to avid listeners. Here's a little taste of Hamid and William to whet your appetite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7iIXoDUczk
Hamid Drake / William Parker
Kidd Jordan
However, one our very important
elders deserving of wider recognition that might need an introduction would be New Orleans saxophonist
and educator (b 1935) Kidd Jordan.
With credits as diverse as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cannonball Adderley
and Cecil Taylor; mentorship of young talent emerging on the New
Orleans scene and his critical role in the education system, some consider Mr. Jordan to be one of
the most important jazz musicians to emerge from the Crescent City. And that's before we even get to his incredible playing – Kidd Jordan takes no prisoners. This will be one helluva concert.
Kidd Jordan talks and plays: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CecjA0FH_Mg
http://www.coastaljazz.ca/performance/french_american_peace_ensemble_featuring_fran%C3%A7ois_tusques
June 22nd – The Ironworks – 9pm
The
lineup includes musicians from France, China and the USA: Didier Petit (cello),
Sylvain Kassap (bass clarinet), Miya Masaoka (koto) and Xu Fengxia (guzheng) and Larry Ochs (saxophones). They’ve
also played a number of concerts together and will be further developing their
concepts on this run across North America.
Didier Petit's East - West Ensemble
Larry Ochs (Rova
Saxophone Quartet) has been involved in a few cross-cultural mashups – this is
what he says about the project, “Melding the sensibilities
of traditional Asian folk musics with the sounds of avant-jazz and the forms of
contemporary new music and improvisation”. He also wants everyone to know that
this music is not only serious – more importantly its FUN! That’s one of the keys that will open the
door to this very particular sound world that melds a link between two unique
types of music. These are some of the
finest improvising musicians on the planet.
A sample of Didier's cello music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V170VQNdJA
June 23rd – The Ironworks – 11:30pm
Sylvain Kassap / Viviane Houle / Stefan Smulovitz
/ Didier Petit is a
collaborative (France / Canada) project with roots at the 2009 festival. This constellation was a festival spin off from Kassap’s Quartet, (touring select Canadian festivals in 2009) with Sylvain and Didier joining west coasters
Vivian and Stefan for a first time performance with this very same quartet.
Photo: Stefan / Viviane / Sylvain / Didier
That first meeting was
successful by all accounts and I've been told that the musical relationship further developed
through follow up work in Europe. Often it’s difficult to arrange encore
performances with these types of one-off projects. On this occasion we’re extremely
happy that there's an opportunity to bring these four amazing musicians back
together for their second festival concert in Vancouver. Prepare for a daring and
exhilarating high wire evening of electro-acoustic chamber music.
Thanks to: Institut Français & the Consulat
Général de France à Vancouver
These international projects were also made possible in part by the FACE program (French American Cultural Exchange)
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