Oliver Weindling reports from the Rencontres AJC, where a new cohort of Jazz Migration bands was showcased, and a cross-border initiative “Jazz With” was launched.
The Annual Meeting in Paris of AJC (Association Jazz Croisé) includes two nights of performances. The organisation itself remains very active, both as a networking body on behalf of its 95 members (who include some from outside France, such as the Vortex!), and also as a lobbying group.
The daytime discussions covered the state of the live music sector and how the different organisations are adapting to the changing economic stringencies, as well as, on a practical note, how different collaborations evolve outside mainland France, such as with Réunion, the French département in the Indian Ocean.
JAZZ MIGRATION 10
The first night showed off the newest four groups of the Jazz Migration project, which are mentored, promoted and given performance opportunities over the course of the next two years. At this event, they perform to members, as well as other promoters from home and overseas, ahead of preparations and mentoring in this year, before gigging more next year. The gigs are also broadcast by French national radio, the first one live.
Bands for Jazz Migration are selected by the member organisations nominating, and then voting from, a shortlist.
Bands this year included NUBU, with a fascinating line up of trombone, flugabone (a sort of valve trombone looking like a flugelhorn), cello and drums, with Catherine Boxall on vocals and serpent. It overlapped a lot into medieval and also folk. The instrumentation gave it a mellowness, but allowed Boxall to soar above the band, sometimes sounding in her wordless vocalise rather like Norma Winstone. There was also a move into folk with a tune based around the kfolk ballad “Barbara Allen”.
Marsavril (MarchApril) was a more straightforward-seeming lineup of saxophone, guitar, bass and drums, though the sound they produced was more diverse. Saxophonist Matthieu Bellon doubled on keyboards to allow some extra ‘guts’ for the guitar Pierre Guimbail to explode. The bass and drums provided a strong foundation for Bellon and Guimbail, including some strong influences of hip hop and beyond, for this diverse sound world above, which included vocals from the band members which sounded a bit like a gentle horn section!
The trio Sėlēnę, from the island of Réunion, has as its crucial member Mélanie Badal on cello and voice, along with Blaise Cadenet on guitar and Mahesh Vingataredy on percussion. And she uses the cello beyond its purity. Effects of the guitar Blaise Cadenet give it an atmosphere which is heavenly. The cello as an instrument here in the UK has reached a great deal of crossover popularity with the likes of Abel Selacoe, merging classical, jazz and world music. Perhaps Sėlēnę has some of that potential?
I had previously heard [Na] at Jazzdor Strasbourg. The type of gig this time seemed to allow them to open up even more than there and they grabbed the audience.
JAZZ WITH
This is a new strand with international financial touring support from AJC, formalising something that had started at the meeting last year with bands such as Shadowlands. These are groups where there are collaborations of musicians from France and elsewhere. There were three selected from, initially, 100. They each had interesting concepts. All three tended to be quite thoughtful, repaying intenser concentration of the audience.
It was great to hear Steve Argüelles on drums, resident in Paris for 30 years, and whom I hadn’t heard for several years, in Weave 4 with his long standing collaborator Benoît Delbecq, along with two Italians, Federico Deodati on guitar and Copenhagen-domiciled Francesco Bigoni on clarinet and saxophone. As with the two Parisians, Deodati and Bigoni have played together for well over a decade. So it was a meeting of two sets of minds. A thought-provoking group, where they could take advantage of the sensitive melodiousness of the drumming and the diverse sound world conjured up by Delbecq, such that all the musicians indeed weave their sounds together to create an intense filigree experience.
“Cheel” is a group involving guitarist Paul Jarret – a much more collaborative, but also freer, lineup than I had heard him lead in Strasbourg. Two of the three members are from Germany: Max Andrzejewski on drums and Luise Volkmann on saxophones. Without a bass, the guitar glued it together to a great degree, and had a great freedom in how he joined in – bass lines, minimalistic lines. “Less is more.” The openness gave scope to both of the others too, to be heard quite clearly.
The third group, T.I.M, also had a strong acoustic element. Piano of Sébastien Palis with two Norwegians, Karoline Wallace on voice and electronics, and Inger Hannisdal on violin and Hardanger fiddle. It gave it an impact which was definitely folkier than the others. From where I was sitting, the piano came over very strongly, especially with elements of preparation, with the voice particularly sounding relatively ethereal. And there was a lot of composition, where the piano reflected the reading by the voice. But as one got used to the sound, it sucked one in to experience elements of detailed interaction.
Oliver Weindling was a guest of AJC
