On the program: 30 concerts including a dozen new creations or concerts in France, nearly 140 artists from 14 countries, master classes and plenty of online bonuses to fully understand the trends that drive each creation. Red thread this year: “Great Black Music in all its diversity”announces the festival director, Fabien Simon.
The opening night will pay tribute to Don Cherry with the participation of Irreversible Entanglements, led by poet and activist Moor Mother. Another poet and singer, Aja Monet will perform for the first time in France while Ambrose Akinmusire, in residence, will revisit the music from the film Ascenseur pour l’Échafaud by Louis Malle, at the time composed by Miles Davis. Also on the program: Isaiah Collier, who “will blow the wind of free and spiritual jazz”with his duo “I AM”, the group Staples Jr. Singers during a blues and gospel evening in Villejuif. DJ King Britt’s Blacktronika project, combining jazz, soul, alternative hip-hop and Afro-futurism, will set the mood for the closing weekend.
As every year, the openness to world cultures remains, with artists like Christine Salem and Ann O’aro, in groups fusing jazz, experimental pop and maloya, or even Niño de Elche and Jorge Pardo for a contemporary flamenco evening at the House of Arts of Créteil. In Maisons-Alfort, a meeting between jazz and Mandinka culture is being prepared with the African Jazz Roots project by Simon Goubert and Ablaye Cissoko. To listen again: the Afro-Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba in a duet with the French saxophonist Pierrick Pédron, and the Colombian singer Alejandra Charry in a duet with the double bassist Thibault Cellier.
Clarinetist Louis Sclavis, faithful to Sons d’hiver, will celebrate his 25th participation in the festival this year with a creation “open to the mix of generations and practices“, joined by American trumpeter Dave Douglas and two New York musicians, drummer Kate Gentile and guitarist Camila Meza.
Side “French new wave”, trumpeter Aymeric Avice will inaugurate a new Franco-American trio with double bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Chad Taylor at the Vincennes auditorium.
This year, carte blanche is given to Julien Desprez, sound artist, composer, improviser, performer and guitarist, as part of two evenings in Alfortville during which he will “threads between noise, avant-garde jazz and improvised music of (uncontrolled) European or Brazilian origins.”
The program is online and the ticket office is open.
