Toulouse. Kyle Eastwood: “Very attached French jazz festivals”
The double bass player found this Friday, October 29, the stage of the Jazz en Comminges festival with appetite for two promising sets alongside Jean-Luc Ponty and Biréli Lagrène, Camille Bertault and Hugh Coltman
So are you back to the Jazz en Comminges festival in Saint-Gaudens?
Yes, I can’t wait to come back, to find Saint-Gaudens and Haute-Garonne after a little break of a little over a month this summer in California. It is always a pleasure thanks to the spectators who are always top here, which makes the French jazz festivals very attached like those which are programmed in Europe elsewhere. I love to play here!
For what reasons ?
The audience is always good here, always enthusiastic and it is very appreciated for us who are on stage, and especially for those who, like us, participate in jazz. And wine and good food are not bad either to complete the picture! (laughs)
Two concerts are scheduled this weekend, the first with Jean-Luc Ponty and Biréli Lagrène…
We toured together during the summer of 2018 with Jean-Luc Ponty and Biréli Lagrène, but this is the first time that we are going to play together again so it’s a moment that I look forward to. I have been a huge fan of their music since I was young! We will perform songs from each of us, and some standards from John Coltrane and Sony Rollins on our violins, acoustic guitar and bass. We’re going to have a good time, I think.
What will be the content of the second concert?
Saturday night I will play with my group, the quintet, all the music from my last album “Cinematic” which is made up of original movie soundtracks that we have rearranged for the quintet, Camille Bertault and Hugh Coltman.
The quintet is working at full speed it seems with your effective British partners …
Yes I like playing with this formation (1), it’s like it was a big band but with few musicians! It’s easier to travel! (laughs) And then I grew up listening to this type of music thanks to my parents listening to it. I have heard big bands, famous jazz quintets like Art Blakey or artists like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. All these influences have nourished my music and that of my quintet.
What were the inspiring sources of your last album “Cinematic” released in 2019?
Cinema, which I’m a fan of, and film music. I tried to pay a kind of homage to my favorite composers Henri Mancini, Lalo Schifrin, John Williams, Ennio Morricone. I chose the films that I loved since my teenage years, some of which are famous and others much less. The two sources constituting the great passions of my life. The project consisted of combining the two pleasures!
Are you going to write other film scores?
Yes I wrote some for my father’s films “Ruthless”, “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Gran Torino”. With my quintet and an orchestra, we are going to record a new record with music from films by my father and Ennio Morricone as well, arranged differently.
Since you’re talking about it, your daddy Clint Eastwood has made a new movie, “Cry Macho”, which will be released on November 10th …
Yes it does not stop! He’s amazing, he loves his job and can’t stop. But that’s normal, it’s not necessarily work when you like what you do …
Proposals reported by Pascal Alquier
(1) Andrew McCormack (piano), Chris Higginbottom (drums), Quentin Collins (trumpet and bugle) and Brandon Allen (saxophone).
Friday October 29 at 10:30 p.m. with Jean-Luc Ponty, Biréli Lagrène and Saturday October 30 at 10:30 p.m. with Camille Bertault and Hugh Coltman at the Comminges Exhibition Center (Route de la Croix de Cassagne in Villeneuve-de-Rivière / Saint-Gaudens). Prices: 42, 34, 12 and 48 euros. Phone. 06 74 26 19 35.