Jazzèbre Saison opened last week with a performance by LENT, a progressive rock group headed by Jazzèbre artist and collaborator, Valentin Ceccaldi.
I was fooled by the group’s name and expected something laid back and, you know…SLOW. Not a bit of it! This concert was dynamic, pacey and full of surprises.
Powerful from the beginning, it was more than just music. Lyrics were spoken rather than sung and the words were often nonsensical, uttered for their cadence or the joy of their sounds. Poetic, profound and light-hearted all at once.
The stage crew did a fantastic job, too, mirroring the lighting with the musical journey. All in all a very affecting performance, and a great start to the season.
Originally, Jazzèbre was a jazz festival based largely in Perpignan and held each autumn, but it’s since become a much more ambitious project.
The team behind it has a a much more far-reaching objective: to reach the largest possible audience with music of all genres, during as much of the year as possible. Everyone, we can be sure, will find something in the programme to love!
I asked Nicolas Pinol, Head of Communication & Partnerships, how the organisation hoped to make a wide variety of music available to all comers. He told me, “Jazzèbre is about more than music. It’s about bringing people together, about conviviality.”
I specifically wanted to know: how do you make something far from mainstream accessible to the general public? The answer, Nicolas says, is to combine the music with beautiful venues (such as the Musée de Collioure), offer wine tastings or an open-air picnic…to create a shared experience.”
Jazzèbre has three prongs: the Saison, which runs from January to June, the jazz festival, which runs through September and October and Les Actions Culterelles, a programme of events offered to schools, in hospitals and other organisations.
Find the programme on the Jazzèbre website.
