Jazzdor Festival 2021, Strasbourg – three first concerts – News, reviews, reports and commentaries from the London jazz scene and beyond
Sebastian Scotney writes:
Last year, the director of the Jazzdor Festival Philippe Ochem and his team had to undo everything they had worked to create. I interviewed him before it happened, well before the 35th festival of 2020 (HERE), a piece we co-published in two languages with Citizen Jazz. This year’s festival is two weeks long and I’m here to cover the opening weekend, November 5-7. Here is an account of the first three concerts of the festival.
Ochem is clear on what this festival is supposed to do: he considers the activity of this festival to be to offer live concerts. As he said last year: “For me, streaming concerts are not a solution, it is not a plan that we have. Our plan, even though we’re only at half capacity, is to do everything we can to get the concerts going. Streaming isn’t even a plan B. We’re going to do the shows, unless we’re not allowed to do them.
Others think differently, notably Jazzfest Berlin, which also takes place this weekend. There are many ways to make things work, but there is certainly – always – clarity and leadership with Philippe Ochem. This festival has a wider reach, especially in France, and the choices are always interesting.
Sofia Domencich (solo piano and Rhodes)
The Parisian pianist has a new solo album, The big day (PeeWee), on which she plays both piano and Rhodes. On both instruments, she is an absolute model of clear lines and textures. This repertoire formed most of the very engaging opening set from last night. Before her career got off to a good start, she left the Paris Conservatory, winning two First Prizes as a classical pianist, but this world was not for her and she soon found other paths. A notable ensemble was his trio with Tony Levin and Paul Rogers. She has also worked extensively with Robert Wyatt and Paul Dunmall. Try the winding cinema “Les Arbres Somnambules” (somnambulist trees) from the new album.
Papanosh + André Minvielle: Prégreen parade
André Minvielle is originally from Pau in the southwest of France, and describes himself as a “troubadour vocalchemist”. Papanosh, a very entertaining group of five musicians formed as a collective in Rouen has been around for over a decade. Their set was a combination of poetry and slam song, political activist / anti-capitalist / rebel and wacky surrealist, and musically they go pretty much everywhere (very convincingly) from waltz-musette to dirty blues, with a sopranino sax and a slide trumpet to produce some interesting sounds. With pianist / organist Sébastien Salis, the group has remarkable compositional / writing strength. This show is quite wordy and is aimed at a native French speaking audience, with all kinds of cultural references going back decades, but is carried by an irrepressible sense of fun and also a very nice musicality.
Ramon Lopez (solo drums / percussion and projected images of paintings)
French percussionist / painter of Spanish origin Ramon lopez has one of the more unusual slash careers (Han Bennink is another, maybe there are more?). He performed solo / free while his paintings were projected. The darker-hued images seemed to calm him down. At one point, when a large mint green stain entered his field of vision, he seemed to want to step back.