Rencontres AJC is the annual gathering of French festivals and clubs, organised by the main support and promotion organisation for French jazz, AJC. It includes both concerts and meetings, and, as ever, what comes across most clearly is not just how joined-up the French way of doing things is, but the more general point that common musical enthusiasms can help to build communities.
One demonstration of that is the fact that France Musique recorded all of the concerts, and for two nights in a row devoted its flagship 6pm drive-time show Open Jazz to the event with radio legend Alex Dutilh and his team doing a live broadcast from it.
Not everything in the garden is that rosy. On a more sombre note, cuts in arts funding are definitely being felt. It was pointed by AJC President Philippe Ochem in his welcome speech that the venue where the Rencontres were happening, La Dynamo in Pantin, had been closed for a few months and its entire programme cancelled. It was being brought back to life temporarily, just for this three-day event.
And there was, for me at least, a disappointment too: the round table discussion on the third day, bore the promising title “collectively reinventing the distribution of music”. But compared to some fascinating and lively sessions in recent years, this one was arcane verging on impenetrable. The session was mainly focused on unpicking the detail of specific financial incentives which French public funders give in order to support and encourage the move to net zero carbon. Or did I manage to doze through something more exciting?
Concerts
An undoubted highlight, on the second night was Daniel Erdmann’s Franco-German cross-border sextet “Thérapie de Couple”.
This is already the third time I have heard them and can only recommend this band whole-heartedly. They were in Bremen last April, then in Berlin at the Jazzdor Festival….their performances just get better and better. The six are all musicians capable of digging in and giving their complete mind, heart and soul and providing massive energy in their solos, but they also all clearly appreciate the other band members, and Erdmann’s writing pushes them in the direction of very tight teamwork, which they also seem to enjoy a lot.
The key to this band is the quality of each musician, and also the strength of personalities involved. Nobody is cowed. There is a clear expectation that each member will put down a major statement in their solos. And that is what each one did. It takes a strong bandleader to want that spirit of rebellion around him, and that is what Erdmann is increasingly able to tap into with this band. T.d.C will presumably want to record this repertoire before too long. I did a little bit of sleuthing about that, and was told…yes, it will happen at some point, but in the meantime that “it’s complicated”.
The success of this band has also had consequences: AJC is about to start to solicit applications from other bands with both a French and a European element (NB and hallelujah, Europe includes the UK for these purposes). It will actively support three or four of this kind of band.
That basic idea of French or French-based musicians collaborating with other European musicians was the common theme to the second night of concerts. “Shadowlands” were there. This is a trio project with Robin Fincker (tenor sax and clarinet), Lauren Kinsella (voice) and Kit Downes (hammond organ and piano). The programme, played in continuous segments rather than a song at a time, allows all three performers to work with the songs, but also in the spaces between and around them. Lauren Kinsella sings folksongs from several ages, and has a powerful yet subtle way of shaping them, providing a framework around which the others can explore freely and go off on voyages of discovery. Kit Downes will always find the astonishing tone colours which lie dormant in an organ, either in a church or in this case a Hammond, and Robin Fincker a is subtle, inventive, thoughtful, classy player. There is already an album recorded and ready to go. It is due out next spring on the Hungarian BMC label. I managed to blag a copy: it is a delight.
We also heard the trio of the lively, percussively inclined Estonian pianist Kirke Karja with French bassist Etienne Renard and German drummer Ludwig Wandlinger.
The Jazz Migration #9 Bands
On the first night we heard all four bands from the current, ninth cohort who have successfully made it onto the Jazz Migration scheme. It is a project produced by AJC and several of its members accompany and support the bands, and ensure that they have the chance to appear at several festivals and clubs. It is a model of what a joined-up support community can achieve.
These four bands, all female-led, are at different stages of “emerging” from conservatoires and complexity into the harsh glare of the real world. There is space here to mention just the two which stay in the mind. They are neatly contrasted. the quartet INUI is highly extrovert, led by the two dynamic and energetic singers Clémence Lagier and Valeria Vitrano, whereas the quartet led by cellist Adele Viret is much more chamber music-oriented and thoughtful. Viret is the daughter of renowned French jazz bassist Jean-Philippe Viret, and Adele works in close collaboration with her trumpeter brother Oscar Viret. The two siblings benefit from the depth of their musical familiarity. It is a special kind of music-making, a kind of collaboration which can lead to fascinating story-telling, dovetailing and understanding, and there are plenty of other examples in jazz. The fact is, however, that fine artistry like this needs concentrated listening. Long spans of focusing on the music demand patience, whereas INUI have a genuinely instant appeal, and will almost certainly be the band who, of the four, will benefit the most from the scheme.
Sebastian was in Pantin as the guest of AJC
