Jazz a Vienne 2019

[Ian Thumwood]

Dzezzva come from Slovenia. Wonder what Joseph thinks of this. Much prefer this approach to rock-ish guitar than the stuff that is too fusion-orientated. The album this comes from puts me in mind of early Terje Rypdal. Another festival highlight.

[Ian Thumwood]

Niama Quartet - led by bassist / vocalist Naima Girou.

EPK might be of interest - but only if you speak French!

[Ian Thumwood]

A rap version of Duke's "Blue Pepper" from Lyon's cult "Zozophonic Orchestra"- really great fun.

[Joseph K]

Dzezzva come from Slovenia. Wonder what Joseph thinks of this. Much prefer this approach to rock-ish guitar than the stuff that is too fusion-orientated. The album this comes from puts me in mind of early Terje Rypdal. Another festival highlight.

They're ok but largely leave me cold/indifferent, owing to their blandness and colourlessness, as I hear it.

[Serial_Apologist]

Kokoroko fronted by the irrepressible Sheila Maurice-Gray. Surprised SA has not come across this band in town.

I expect they frequent places like the Pizza Express and 606, which I don't - but I have heard of them, and they're terrific.

[Serial_Apologist]

They're ok but largely leave me cold/indifferent, owing to their blandness and colourlessness, as I hear it.

Yep. The guy's good on keyboards, but my feeling is "So what?" (not the Miles tune), as it all kind of stays on the same level, little opportunity to interact, lighten or intensify, and the guitar solo brings to mind George Russell's admonishment to poor Andy Sheppard in a rehearsal: "You aren't just supposed to play the BLUES SCALE, man!!"

[Serial_Apologist]

Niama Quartet - led by bassist / vocalist Naima Girou.

EPK might be of interest - but only if you speak French!

Good players, but oh, such overplayed harmonic sequences and clichéd riffs - sorry, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with being stuck in a past era but girls started wearing different clothes in the 1960s to distinguish themselves from their parents; you can only squeeze SO MUCH out of the ALREADY KNOWN.

[Serial_Apologist]

A rap version of Duke's "Blue Pepper" from Lyon's cult "Zozophonic Orchestra"- really great fun.

I wonder how these young Lyons go down in the ghettoes there...

[Ian Thumwood]

Yep. The guy's good on keyboards, but my feeling is "So what?" (not the Miles tune), as it all kind of stays on the same level, little opportunity to interact, lighten or intensify, and the guitar solo brings to mind George Russell's admonishment to poor Andy Sheppard in a rehearsal: "You aren't just supposed to play the BLUES SCALE, man!!"

Annoyingly the CD will not play on m Cambridge system but listening to their disc in the car a lot of the harmony is borrowed from folk music from the region. I didn't not think that the blues were a particular part of their style were the Rypdal comparison is even or emphasized. I thought that the drummer was really impressive during the gig. I spoke to the guitarist afterwards and he was quite interesting in recollecting supporting Rypdal at another festival in Europe a few years back. For my money, they were a really good group.

The main point of posting these clips is to give you an idea of what is out there. There is a celebrated conservatoire in Lyon where ex-Dizzy pianist Mario Stanchev was involved in the jazz education department and the quality of musicians from the city who appear at Lyon each year is staggeringly good. I did not get t hear a fraction of the jazz performed this year given that there are 4 gigs on the Cybele stage each day, a two-part set in the Theatre antique and then a session at the Club de minuit. On top of this, there area number of other gigs around the city plus the music that is going in on the bars which was in very short supply this year. the festival also featured bands from places like Toulouse as well as outside of France - not unusual as the festival is international. The impression I get if that there is a lot of jazz out there which is really under the radar. Picking up on Alyn's comment on JRR tonight about requests for musicians deserving wider recognition, the festival really sheds a light on how broad the current jazz scene is and especially beyond the US and the UK . The opening track on J-Z was good but I don't feel this is untypical of the wider availability of jazz played by musicians who are relatively unknown.

The curious lesson for me is that I feel some of these musicians who have played on the Cybele stage are probably better than some well known names. Marquis Hill is getting a lot of press at the moment as good as his alto player was, I felt that some of the European acts over the last fortnight were no less capable. Perhaps the biggest "let down" this year was Terrance Blanchard whose performance with Chucho Valdes marked him out for me as the most underwhelming American musician I had heard since Aaron Diehl. Some people I spoke to afterwards had similar reservations but in a set that was supposed to pay homage to Roy Hargrove, Blanchard certainly lacked the chops and outright foxiness of Hargrove's playing. Maybe it was an off-night yet he seemed overwhelmed by Valdes' piano. A similar mismatch occurred with the supreme Joe Lovano and Diana Krall - it was a fascinating combination as Krall was pushed to her limits which made the gig enthralling.

[Ian Thumwood]

I found this gig fascinating although this extract does not include the additional 30 member choir behind the vocal group. Not sure if it is jazz and the music really reminds me of some of Steve Reich's work...

[Serial_Apologist]

I found this gig fascinating although this extract does not include the additional 30 member choir behind the vocal group. Not sure if it is jazz and the music really reminds me of some of Steve Reich's work...

Similaer to Norma Winstone,s 1980s group Vocal Summit, with Jay Clayton and Uszula Dudziac, whch had McFerrin with them on one tour. I have a great tape of them with John Taylor and Pete Saberton added on keyboards and Steve Arguelles percussion.