“Jazz allows you to escape from many constraints”

Hughes Kieffer, artistic director of Marseille Jazz des 5 Continents, presented Jazz Radio, the new edition of the festival which begins on June 30 and ends on July 13. For this, he had simple but strong words which we deliver to you here in the form of an introduction.

“There is a lot of competition but I think we also need to find ourselves in an atmosphere that is both festive and peaceful in this world. Jazz allows us to escape from many constraints and offers evenings where we feel good and where we can give free rein to our imagination, to our instincts of love and exchange because it still exists. Even in an anxious or anxious world, each person has only one desire, it is to release one’s share of kindness, tenderness, emotion and sympathy for one’s neighbor.”

A program that makes you want to…

The festival takes place from June 30 to July 13 but in reality, it never stops since you have dates all year round…

It’s true that, over the last few years, we’ve spread, we’ve expanded, we’ve gained ground, time and numbers of concerts. Now, we travel across the metropolis to several destinations, villages, schools, theaters, etc. Truly, we have extended our field of struggle to defend the Jazz of the 5 Continents. This allows us to meet people who do not have a precise image of the great diversity of this music or who think that it is difficult to access. All the actions that we carry out, particularly in schools, are done in collaboration with artists who really make the connection, show how music is part of life, that the self-expression that we know in jazz through improvisation is something that can be worked on from a very young age. There are also messages of sharing, of listening to others which are listenable and can be implemented from childhood. This is all this work that we carry out in schools, for example. And in the communities, the idea is to bring artists closer to people, so that they don’t have to travel to festivals that are far from home. The idea is also to offer as many dates and contact areas as possible for jazz artists.

You are announcing this year an edition open to the world but we have the impression that, like Marseille, this has always been the case?

We created Jazz des 5 Continents to give ourselves this horizon of the planet, yes. It is the artistic line of the festival to be open to the world and this year, in these times, this desire and this message are asserting themselves even more. We encounter both a lot of support and some difficulties and we want to say that it is through this positivity, this path of meeting and exchange that we will be able to find solutions to certain problems which are very deep in our society.

Are you hosting creations this year because we know that these are projects that are close to your heart?

This year, there is no pure creation but carte blanche to Kyle Eastwood for example, the meeting with Robin McKelle is an important moment for us. The arrival of Madison Mcferrin too is something that is quite original because she is not yet very well known on this side of the Atlantic. Her career is only starting to develop and we were very happy to nominate this artist. This year, we have a very strong focus, we will welcome, with Raphaël Imbert and the upper class of jazz from the Marseille conservatory, the Révérence collective which comes from Atlanta, to meet local musicians in a jazz club, Jazz Club 222 , which we will create for the occasion and where there will be incredible encounters, battles, exchanges, everything we love about jazz. Around that, there will be masterclasses, meetings with other disciplines.

One of the first dates announced at the end of last year was the arrival of Gregory Porter, who will be very rare this year in France and you managed to schedule him. It’s a doubly Grégory evening since Grégory Privat will be on stage as the opening act. It will be Friday July 12 in the magnificent setting of the Palais Longchamps gardens…

Yes, it’s an evening of excellence, isn’t it (smiles)? It’s the kind of evening that we’re quite proud of when we talk about jazz. We are also very happy in terms of content, messages, what we want to express when we say we play jazz. Indeed, we welcome the most artists on the planet to Marseille. This is not to show off but to say that people here can also have access to these artists. And then, Grégory Privat is the expression of what is being done a little better in current jazz in France. It’s truly excellence in diversity. There are still a few places left, you have to take advantage of them! There are also a few places left for other great evenings but they fill up as the date approaches. One must come !

You should also come and discover an artist who is also much talked about, Léon Phal…

By immersing ourselves in this young generation who are bringing something new to jazz with crazy energy, we understood that Léon Phal was one of its major representatives, both in creativity and in playing but also in the way to approach music, he plays with lots of other people, he is very collective, he shares. It’s an evening that we’re planning in a place geared towards the younger generation to show that this jazz music is not reserved for an elderly elite. There, we are at the Friche de la belle de mai with Bada Bada who is another representative of jazz that sends out. Both in the same evening, it’s also a source of pride because it’s current music, music of today and jazz is part of it, it’s not pushed into a corner.

We talked about Madison Mcferrin but, on the same evening, there will be Keziah Jones and José James…

José James will come to present his new opus and has reached a maturity and a quality that surprises us. But it continues to increase! And Keziah Jones, his reputation is well established. His aura and charisma are incredible and crosses eras and genres while being well oriented in his story. It is a program that we wanted to write a bit like a composition and which allows you to take a journey, both through the places in Marseille, because each place in Marseille has its own specificity and character, also in the history of the city. This offers spectators a special atmosphere and the artists are programmed according to these places.

Also tell us about David Walters coming on Saturday July 13…

This evening will open with Marion Rampal and her new album, her slightly crazy directions, her music open and permeable to these influences which go beyond France. She creates something truly special with which she achieves excellence. Just after, there will be David Walters who also crossed the world, met other communities, other cultures to share, exchange and brings creolization towards celebration as he himself says in his project but with a strong message. The party that we also find with Roberto Fonseca and which pays homage to all this Latin-jazz culture in his cabaret project. So, when we go through this evening, we are in a very joyful, very festive approach where we also find a nostalgic or melancholic aspect… It is a joyful and festive melancholy which means that we can find ourselves in the process of to dance at 6 a.m., hugging each other, at daybreak. It is this special atmosphere that we want to close this 2024 edition…

Comments collected by Benoit Thuret

Text written by Grégory Curot