Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
August 23rd, 2011 | 
Author: 
Olivier Campana, Emmanuel Cottalorda of Dog and Bone; courtesy of Claire de Filippis
The music season is winding down on the Cote d’Azur just as the days shorten and sun-glazed tourists check traffic conditions for the long drive home. There’s plenty of music all year of course but you have to actually go inside to hear it. No more dancing or dreaming under the stars. Bummer.
When I talk about summer music on the Riviera, I don’t just mean the famous festivals, the Nice Jazz Festival and the Jazz a Juan at Juan-les-Pins. There’s also the Nuits du Sud at Vence for “world” music and the first-rate classical concert series at the Cloister of the Franciscan monastery in Cimiez. A little further afield, there are the classical concerts at the Festival de Musique in Menton and, up a few price tiers, pop-rock concerts at the Monte Carlo Sporting Summer Festival. These are all paying concerts but here’s where you’ll hear your major stars: Wynton Marsalis at the Nice Jazz Festival; Santana at the Jazz a Juan; the Spanish Harlem Jazz Orchestra at the Nuits du Sud; Brigitte Engerer at the Cloister concerts; Leo Nucci in Menton, Tom Jones in Monte Carlo.
But you don’t need to come down to the coast to listen to music! Far from it. Each year regional and local authorities sponsor free concerts in dozens of villages in the hinterlands. Whether jazzy, lightly classical, French or vaguely exotic, the programming plays it safe. Still, it’s a good way to catch up with rising talents like the soprano Amy Blake singing in a fetching hilltop village like Clans. You can get the schedule at this site.
Other free concerts in the summer include the Fête de la Musique where musicians (mostly dreadful) bang away on every square or streetcorner, the weekly Prom’ Parties in Nice (so-so music) and the “off” concerts (fun) surrounding the jazz festivals of Nice and Juan-les-Pins.
Then there are more obscure concerts that are not so well advertised. The town of Sospel hosted a Baroquiales series which featured a group (Doulce Memoire) that combined Renaissance dance music with Spanish flamenco dancers. OK, it was odd, but definitely listenable and watchable.
My most fun free concert was this past Saturday at Breil-sur-Roya. For a rollicking hour and a half, Dog and Bone shook the trout loose from the lake with covers of greatest hits from the Stones to the Beatles to Motown. I almost didn’t go because I often find that French bands don’t quite “get” rock; the phrasing isn’t right, the rhythms aren’t precise, the words are learned phonetically. This band got it all right, helped no doubt by lead singer Olivier Campana‘s years with London bands. They played with such verve and musicality, I found myself wondering, “who are these guys”? and “why don’t they play longer”? (ever notice how you can’t get amateurs off the stage but the pros always leave you hungry?).
It turns out that they weren’t playing for free (the local Velo Club sponsored them) and they have quite a list of songwriting, recording and performance credits among them. Toulon-born Campana (performing as Olivier Chamber for some reason) has recorded with a number of bands over the years and now showcases his Springsteen-ish voice on his solo album, My Starlight (available on iTunes). Breil-born lead guitarist Emmanuel Cottalorda has written hit tunes for the Quebec singer, Marilou, and has worked with singer/songwriter Pascal Obispo. Joined by drummer Laurent Pomares and bassist Ronald Houweling, this newly-formed group shows real promise. Wonder what original material they may come up with. Anyway, I’m glad that my musical summer ended on such a high note.
Posted in 
Scrunched up against neighbouring Cannes, Le Cannet seems swallowed up by its glamorous sister. Now there’s a good reason for visitors to tear themselves away from La Croisette and head uphill to Le Cannet.
The very first museum devoted to the painter, Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) has now opened its doors in Le Cannet with a smashing new exhibition, titled Bonnard et Le Cannet: Dans La Lumière de La Meéditerranée.
Gathered from such heavyweight museums as the Musee d’Orsay in Paris and the Metropolitan in New York, the exhibition includes such masterpieces as L’Atelier au Mimosa, Baignoir and L’Amandier.
Why Le Cannet? Bonnard fell in love with the colors in the south of France and lived in Le Cannet lived here between 1922 and 1947. High on the hills overlooking Cannes and the sea, he painted some of his most enchanting work.
Naturally, this exhibit concentrates on the works produced during this period as Bonnard captured the glory of the French Riviera in its kaleidoscope of color.
The exhibit will be on display until September 27.
The Spanish Harlem Jazz Orchestra
The Nuits du Sud yearly festival in Vence is one of my favorite summer music festivals. Emphasizing World Music, this relaxed festival is the place to come if you like ‘dancing in the streets’ as the tempos are nearly always pulsing. Last weekend, I was impressed with the Spanish Harlem Jazz Orchestra, a Latin jazz band that rocked the town. It was unfortunately preceded by Australian group, Blue King Brown, that took an inordinately long time to get into the groove. No matter. The wait for the headlining act was well worthwhile. The New York-based group reminded me of, well, Spanish Harlem, on a hot summer night.
Unlike the other festivals in the region, the Nice Jazz Festival and the Jazz a Juan at Juan-les-Pins, the Nuits du Sud takes place on the town square. Although roped off (sorry gate-crashers), the Place du Grand Jardin is ringed by an assortment of cafes, restaurants, bars and snack bars that gave a real choice of munchies during the concerts. Be aware that to enjoy a meal bordering the concerts, you must reserve in advance and count on spending about €30. But it’s perfectly possible to get a snack and a glass of wine and enjoy it in your seat. Oh, but get there early if you want one of the (non-reserved) seats as they tend to fill up.
The price of an evening is a reasonable €20 which makes it the cheapest of the French Riviera music festivals as well. And you can easily get tickets at the gate if you haven’t bought online.
Marcus Miller
Friday the 15th at the famous Jazz a Juan jazz festival at Juan-les-Pins was devoted to commemorating jazz giant Miles Davis. The first band of this two-part evening was Bitches Brew Beyond led by trumpeter Wallace Roney. With sidemen Al Foster, Bernie Maupin, Antoine Roney and others, the group struggled to honor Miles Davis’ groundbreaking fusion album, Bitches Brew. For whatever reason, it didn’t work. The mysterious alchemy that makes jazz “swing” was entirely absent, leaving the audience disengaged and bored. It didn’t help that the group started about 1/2 hour late which meant a long wait for the music everyone came to hear: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Marcus Miller in their “Tribute to Miles”.
Now that was jazz at its most transcendent, most spiritual. The intricate harmonies lay within a complex rhythmical structure that was both subtle and pulsing. Hancock, Shorter and Miller have nothing to prove on the technical front so we were spared flashy see-how-fast-I-can-play nonsense. Every note was a well-chosen stitch in the larger tapestry of sound. The effect was hypnotically beautiful. I fell into a kind of trance where nothing existed but the music weaving its magic. I wasn’t surprised when Miller (in excellent French) explained that they were expressing Miles’ dreams!
As always, the acoustics in the Jazz a Juan festival were impeccable, the crowd respectful and the serene, seaside setting fantastic.
Wynton Marsalis & Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
It’s been a swinging five days at the Nice Jazz Festival concluding last night with a ravishing set by Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Despite Marsalis’ somewhat catty comment on Facebook that he played “the jazz night” and ” it’s good to see some actual jazz musicians at a jazz festival” (meaning preceding artists Ahmad Jamal and Roy Hargrove), there were other bona fide jazz musicians on other nights. Monday night’s program featured Avishai Cohen and “Trombone”" Shorty; Sunday night boasted Martial Solal, Stefano Bollani and Michel Portal; Saturday had bluesman Joe-Louis Walker. I suspect that Marsalis does not accept the jazz fusion style of Mike Stern and Didier Lockwood or John McLaughlin on the opening night. I don’t much care for it either but I think it does deserve the jazz label.
If it’s any consolation to Marsalis and other jazz purists, “jazz night” was absolutely jam-packed. It was, by far, the best attended night of the festival. Clearly having funkster Maceo Parker on the bill helped boost attendance but I suspect that it was Marsalis, Ahmad Jamal and Roy Hargrove who really put the buns in the seats–and on the ground and squeezed into every available corner of the Theatre de Verdure. In fact the milling crowds with the kids, cellphones, beer runs and chatter made it difficult to concentrate on the music.
Maceo Parker "battled" Wynton Marsalis
Marsalis’ other complaint that ” loud non- jazz blaring from the main stage . . . is now bleeding into every song we play.” refers to a serious problem with the festival’s two stage format. The Theatre de Verdure presents musicians who, by and large, eschew heavy amplification while the main stage, Theatre Masséna, lets bands like Seal and Maceo Parker crank up the amps. Actually, the problem was less severe with Marsalis’ big band sound. He should have been there for Avishai Cohen’s trio which was totally squashed by Seal.
To the problem of overcrowding, I say raise the ticket price. In festivals past, nights with big names simply cost more. It’s a wonderful gift to have Ahmad Jamal, Roy Hargrove, Wynton Marsalis and Maceo Parker for only €35 but last year you would have paid €50 and had some physical and mental space to appreciate the music.
Resolving the Battle of the Bands is trickier. You could turn down the amplification on the main stage but that would diminish the pleasure of people who come for a throbbing beat. And, the bands were not over-amped to begin with. A better solution might lie in the programming. Try not to pit a trio in the Theatre de Verdure against dueling electric guitars in the Theatre Masséna.
Come to think of it, if the Nice Jazz Festival only programmed the classic jazz that Marsalis prefers both problems would be solved! The crowds would be thinner as the number of true jazz afficionados is fewer and jazz lovers in both venues could more fully enter into the music without “music bleed”. Maybe the legendary jazzman has a point.