Gaume Jazz Festival celebrated its 40th edition from 9 to 11 August. As with so many other festivals, this festival has been run from the beginning by one person, Jean-Pierre Bissot, who has carefully nurtured and adapted the programme.
It takes place in the Centre Culturel in Rossignol, a village in the Wallonie region of Belgium. In the grounds they are able to set up two marquees, which alternate as to which is being gigged in at any time, as well as a small concert hall and a church just a minute’s walk away.
“Jazz and Peace”
A major theme of the 2024 festival was “Jazz and Peace” which has quite a resonance: there was a massacre of 122 Rossignol residents by the Germans in August 1914.
Three main concerts were included in this theme. Thérapie de Couple, led by Daniel Erdmann, with a great band including violinist Theo Ceccaldi, lived up to the expectations based on the previous reviews for UK Jazz News. Here it had an additional poignancy, as it reflected Franco-German reconciliation.:
“No Wall, No War”, with music by Charles Loos, was a reworking of a ballet originally commissioned to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. The jazz quartet, including accordion, was enhanced by choreography of Marie Simon and Guérin Phan. Precise and moving, with perhaps a meaningfulness because many of our hopes after 1989 were reflected in the ballet, but now seem to have been dashed.
The third was “Rousilvo”, Dîne Doneff’s tribute to a village, which became part of Greece after 1945, with a Macedonian population. Gradually the village was “Hellenised”, so that, by 1986, the population had vanished. Demonstrating how borders, often decided after wars, don’t reflect ethnic/cultural groupings which can get stifled by whoever is in power politically. A heart-rending piece, where it was often not possible to distinguish between improvisation and through-composed. Doneff himself moved between drums and bass, and musically it merged so well the Western and traditional Balkan idioms, in terms of rhythm, and the use of microtones, especially by the saxophonist James Wylie. Maria Hafka touched emotional heartstrings on accordion and voice.
Other concerts
This 40th edition had a further bittersweet element: Jodie Devos, a soprano mainly involved in classical and baroque music, but who lived locally, had recently died suddenly at the age of 35. The concert which had been planned as tribute to her favourite singer Judy Garland, turned into a celebratory commemoration of the both of them. The Amazing Keystone Big Band, directed by trumpeter David Ehnco, brought in new harmonies and energy. Neïma Nemouri, a friend of Devos, sang with a breathtaking power and range. The arrangements breathed new life into “Over The Rainbow”, “Get Happy” and other classics.
Another singer, who was certainly one of the headliners, was Youn Sun Nah. An intimate show, with just pianist Benjamin Moussay, who seems to be a real go-to for such circumstances, performing tracks from her latest album “Elles”, a tribute to female singers. A flawless technique, she reworked quite dramatically songs such as “Feeling Good”. However sometimes it could have had more emotion. It was reassuring to learn though that our own Norma Winstone is one of her great inspirations. So, even with no UK musicians present, the presence of our British scene could be felt!
A further side of the festival is how it encourages many bands from the region and from Luxembourg, next door. Saturday was especially strong in this regard, and especially seemed to focus on groups which had strong messages through their melody. This was certainly the case with the guitar-piano duo of Storyboard, where the two instrumentalists then intertwined, with perhaps a bit of the flavour of the duo of Bill Evans and Jim Hall.
Similarly with Mathilde Renault, a singer accompanying herself on piano. More in the mould of singer-songwriter, her originals were enhanced by the trumpeter Antoine Dawans.
The highlight of these melodic-acoustic sets was the trio of Greek pianist Tania Giannouli, with the trumpet of Jakob Baensch and oud of Kyriakos Tapakis. Playing well off each other, the band members were given the space for extended unaccompanied solos. Baensch’s had a mesmerising Bach-like intensity. To compensate for the lack of an actual percussion instrument, she prepared the piano in such a way as to build on its percussive characteristics. Perhaps reminiscent in some ways of Marta Sanchez at Inntöne a couple of weeks before.
The festival ended with a couple of very upbeat French bands, and making us leave with a spring in our step. INUI, one of the groups of Jazz Migration, seemed to relish the chance to perform on a bigger stage than when I had last heard them in Paris. The interplay of Dimitri Kogane on drums and Maya Cros on keyboards acted as a springboard for the two singers, Valeria Vitrano and Clémence Lagier, who were explosive together.
And, to end, Edredon Sensible from Toulouse. Two saxophones, and two drums, which had all those still there dancing. The lineup exuded an attitude, which seemed to have influences of both Sons of Kemet and Acoustic Ladyland’s “skronk”.
