GALA CONCERT
Michel Portal & Guests
Saturday, 16 September 2023
Théâtre La Criée
21:30 - 23:00
An undisputed iconic figure, an eternal free spirit always seeking new musical adventures, Michel Portal still has many surprises in store. The clarinettist commands respect across generations, as evidenced by this creator of musical hybrids whose career has led to the confluence of several worlds, classical and contemporary music, jazz and improvised music, representing both rigour and freedom. For the occasion, he is surrounded by his usual accomplices Bojan Z, Julien Herné and Stéphane Galland, and welcomes two of the most creative artists from the European scene. Yazz Ahmed, the young English trumpeter, is brilliant and creative, and Eivind Aarset, the Norwegian guitarist, brings his inspired electronic universe. That's why this unique concert will be a true event, reflecting the incredible abundance of creative music in Europe.
Michel Portal: bass clarinet
Bojan Z: piano
Yazz Ahmed: trumpet
Julien Herne: bass
Eivind Aarset: guitar
Stephane Galland: drums
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ZENITH AWARD 2023 CONCERT
Nout
Saturday, 16 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
11:45 - 12:30
Described as the missing chain between Nirvana and Sun Ra, the alliance between Delphine Joussein, Rafaëlle Rinaudo and Blanche Lafuente aims at pushing their instruments beyond their limits, with the enthusiasm of a mad scientist in front of his vials. Flute, harp & drums is a rare combination that this trio turns upside down. In the wake of John Zorn's experiences on the borders of jazz and noise, Nout imagines its music as a scenario with surprising twists. “We believe to be the characters of Alien and we find ourselves in Indiana Jones; we start with our eyes shut on a red movie theatre seat and we end up rocking on the dancefloor”. They have been performing together since 2020, took part in the Jazz Migration #7 development programme by the Association Jazzé Croisé and subsequently toured in France and Europe gathering enthusiastic reviews and great appreciation from the public. In 2023 Nout was selected as the winner of the second Zenith Award for emerging artists - an initiative launched by EJN in collaboration with 12 Points Festival in order to shine a spotlight on a remarkable European ensemble or solo project working in creative jazz and improvised music.
Delphine Joussein: flute, fx
Rafaëlle Rinaudo: electric harp
Blanche Lafuente: drums
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OPENING CONCERT
Poetic Ways
Friday, 15 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
11:00 - 11:45
Jazz, of course, is all about encounters. But above all, it's about surprise and poetry. The Poetic Ways quintet is a successful test that emerged from a surprising challenge: to make the voices of Celia Kameni, Anne Paceo, Raphaël Imbert, Pierre-François Blanchard and Pierre Fenichel work together for a new sonic, aesthetic, and poetic adventure. The challenge was accomplished during a live improvised concert on France Musique in November 2021 for the bicentennial of the Pierre Barbizet Conservatory in Marseille. The magic of the moment was recorded and captured the listeners' attention who were surprised to hear the works of Fauré, Ferré, Baudelaire, Verlaine and Nina Simone. Don't miss this new creation!
Raphaël Imbert: saxophone, bass clarinet
Anne Paceo: drums
Celia Kameni: vocals
Pierre Fenichel: double bass
Pierre-François Blanchard: piano
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SHOWCASE
Orchid Big Band
Thursday, 14 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
22:45 - 23:30
The Orchid Big Band is a modern large ensemble that is an emanation of the Parisian-Aquitaine jazz collective Déluge. The band draws inspiration from the great jazz orchestras of the jazz era, as well as from European art music (especially Stravinsky), world music, and even its American counterparts (Maria Schneider, Kenny Wheeler), up to today's music. This young and balanced formation brings together 18 musicians who are passionate about group playing and original music. Driven by the enthusiasm of its members, the band unleashes a rare energy in concert, from dreamlike landscapes to frenetic tuttis.
Olga Amelchenko, Nora Kamm, Maxime Berton, Jeanne Michard, Julien Dubois: saxophones
Gabriel Levasseur, Olivier Gay, Laure Fréjacques, Julie Varlet: trumpets
Rozann Bézier, Sébastien Iep Arruti, Gabrielle Rachel, Sébastien Llado: trombones
Mathilda Haynes: guitar
Clément Simon: piano
Nolwenn Leizour: double bass
Thomas Julienne: direction
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SHOWCASE
Naïssam Jalal & Claude Tchamitchian
Friday, 15 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
14h:30 - 15:00
Naïssam Jalal, the flautist, and Claude Tchamitchian, the double bassist, offer us a captivating musical journey oscillating between contemplation and trance, silence and music. For several years, Naïssam Jalal has unveiled a personal and vibrant musical universe, weaving links between different musical cultures and aesthetic fields. Her music captivates and surprises with its constantly renewed musical research and curiosity. Accompanied by the excellent double bassist Claude Tchamitchian, Naïssam Jalal will present a repertoire at the crossroads of modal jazz and all the extra-Western, spiritual, and ritual music that has touched and nourished her.
Naïssam Jalal: flute, nay, kashishis, voice
Claude Tchamitchian: double bass
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SHOWCASE
Enzo Carniel & House of Echo
Friday, 15 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
17:00 - 17:30
House of Echo was created in 2012 when pianist Enzo Carniel and guitarist Marc-Antonio Perrio decided to create airy and improvised music that reconnects and reconciles us with true listening and time. In contrast to the hasty effects and immediacy with which our impatient era compromises, their compositions are created and developed over time, suggesting subtle modulations of colours and tonalities, between melodic abstraction and allusive grooves, shimmering textures and sonic conflicts, delineating a range of "soundscapes" with powerful dreamlike abilities.
Enzo Carniel: piano & electronics
Marc Antoine Perrio: guitar & electronics
Simon Tailleu: double bass
Ariel Tessier: drums
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SHOWCASE
Papanosh
Friday, 15 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
18:30 - 19:00
Papanosh is a young quintet with a long history. A Very Big Lunch is the group's seventh album. Still as libertarian and inspired, Sébastien Palis (keyboards), Raphaël Quenehen (saxophones), Quentin Ghomari (trumpets), Thibault Cellier (double bass), and Jérémie Piazza (drums) embark on a new adventure: meeting Jim Harrison, American novelist and poet (1937-2016), who believed that writing and trout fishing went well together. A Very Big Lunch is like an allegorical representation of "Le Cyclope" or rather what it has given birth to: stories, characters, and images.
Quentin Ghomari: trumpet, flugelhorn
Raphaël Quenehen: saxophones
Sebastien Palis: piano, keyboards
Thibault Cellier: double bass
Jérémie Piazza: drums
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SHOWCASE
Sarāb
Friday, 15 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
21:00 - 21:30
Born from the encounter between the Franco-Syrian singer Climène Zarkan and guitarist Baptiste Ferrandis, SARĀB - mirage in Arabic - is a musical construction that mixes rock, contemporary jazz, and traditional Arab music, playing on boundaries and genres. The duo quickly transformed into a six-headed creature, where each member became indispensable to the musical creation. The trombone of Robinson Khoury combines with the voice and navigates between Oriental and European scales, between ornamentation and personal technique. It is with the trombone and the voice that we find the horizontality of Arab music, disturbed by the rich harmonic verticality of the guitar and piano.
Climène Zarkan: vocals
Baptiste Ferrandis: guitar
Robinson Khoury: trombone
Thibault Gomez: keyboards
Timothée Robert: bass
Paul Berne: drums
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FRINGE
FUR
Friday, 15 September 2023
Théâtre La Criée
22:30 - 23:30
Hélène Duret brought together the FUR trio in 2019, eager to explore music in a small setting, reducing musical parameters to their essence while maintaining a great spontaneity. FUR traverses vast landscapes, following a dangerous and winding path towards a utopian and magical place, but stops at night for social bonds and a shared hot coffee. The trio knows very well what it wants to say to you, but doesn't yet know how to do it, as decisions will be made along the way.
Hélène Duret: clarinet, bass clarinet, vocals, compositions
Benjamin Sauzereau: guitar, compositions
Maxime Rouayroux: drums, compositions
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FRINGE
Ludivine Issambourg Antiloops
Friday, 15 September 2023
Théâtre La Criée
23:30 - 00:30
Ludivine Issambourg is a talented French flautist, composer, and producer whose talent has won over a wide range of renowned artists such as Wax Tailor, Incognito, Eric Legnini, Chassol, Nils Landgren, Angélique Kidjo, Laurent Coulondre, Dominique A, ASM, Catherine Ringer. Dividing her skills and art between numerous projects and collaborations, Ludivine mainly shares her work between the following two groups, Antiloops and Outlaws.
Ludivine Issambourg: flutes
Nicolas Derand: keyboards
Timothée Robert: bass
Julien Sérié: drums
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SHOWCASE
Yessaï Karapetian Quintet
Saturday, 16 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
14:30 - 15:00
Yessaï Karapetian - born on November 28, 1993 in Yerevan, Armenia - is a composer, performer, and multi-instrumentalist with an ambitious approach to contemporary jazz. Living between Paris, New York, and Yerevan, he sensitively and virtuosically embraces all facets that make up his identity: resonances of his Armenian roots and Afro-American cultures, and French impressionist piano traversing avant-garde universes of Thom Yorke or James Blake.
Yessaï Karapetian: piano
Norayr Gapoyan: duduk
Avag Margaryan: blul
Marc Karapetian: bass
David Paycha: drums
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SHOWCASE
Louise Jallu
Saturday, 16 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
14:30 - 15:00
Astor Piazzolla has been played so much that Louise Jallu prefers to depart from the original and trace her own uniqueness from there. The 29-year-old bandoneon player, composer (Conservatoire de Gennevilliers), and artist chooses not to play the card of revival but rather to move away from the original. Louise Jallu says, 'If we pretend to bring something new, we must do something else. Take Piazzolla's music as if it were a standard and take it elsewhere.' The artist adopts a refreshing approach that is as scrupulous as it is critical, slowing down the tempo, opening up new harmonic paths, reformulating the melody, which has brought her to national and international stages as well as festivals.
Louise Jallu: bandonéon
Matthias Lévi: violin
Grégoire Letouvet: piano, fender rhodes
Karsten Hochapfel: guitar
Alexandre Perrot: double bass
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SHOWCASE
Marion Rampal
Saturday, 16 September 2023
Palais du Pharo
18:30 - 19:00
Marion Rampal's album "Tissé" delicately answers THE question that has been beating in her heart until its last note: once detached from labels and borrowings, what singular folklore, sewn to the soul and close to the body, do we really own? From the very first track "A volé", with its melody drawn in the air, its swaying Cajun rhythm and its text delicately moulded in French, Marion Rampal responds with subtle touches. She loves music to madness and has always kept it as close to the stars as to her heart. Her voice is poised, naked and trembling, her musical and poetic writing subtly creolized by the work of time and smoked by the fire of experience: Marion Rampal makes us hear the sweet and fierce, tender and untameable singing of an artist and a woman who, more than ever, from the unassailable heights where music lifts her, tells us: "No, you are not going to put me in a box like that."
Marion Rampal: vocals
Raphael Chassin: drums
Simon Tailleu: double bass
Matthis Pascaud: guitar
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FRINGE
Obradovic-Tixier Duo
Saturday, 16 September 2023
Théâtre La Criée
23:30 - 00:30
The Obradovic-Tixier Duo is the combination of French pianist David Tixier and Croatian drummer Lada Obradovic. The duo produces a contemporary and stylish sound by blending acoustic and electronic instruments, such as the Moog, Fender Rhodes, Glockenspiel, Mbira, and other toys. A gentle yet striking performance where David's sophisticated harmonies and lyrical drama intertwine with Lada's polyrhythms. A nearly shamanic piano phrase is muffled by digital covers while a flurry of cymbals carries us like wings flapping in the air. Together, the duo weaves a captivating narrative.
Lada Obradovic: drums
David Tixier: piano
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FRINGE
Dowdelin
Saturday, 16 September 2023
Théâtre La Criée
00:30 - 01:30
No location in music is immutable. No music can remain motionless, but this is hardly truer than for Dowdelin, a group that cannot be attached to a single geography and genealogy. The Creole language, Caribbean rhythms, urban energies, dazzling virtuosity, sensual electro: the group evolves in a unique place where genres and colours, heritage and audacity can blend.
Olivya Victorin: vocals
David Kiledjian: tenor saxophone, keyboard, bass
Greg Boudras: drums
Raphael Philibert: alto saxophone, percussions
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