Archive for the ‘Nice Jazz Festival’ Category
July 23rd, 2009 | 
Author: They’re not making it easy to visit the Nice Jazz Festival this year. Gerard Druot Productions is the organizer of the festival, possibly for the last time. Official figures are not yet in but the festival does not appear to be a resounding success. One reason for the sparse crowds we witnessed last night might be due to GDP’s cavalier and inexplicable failure to explain the most basic question: how do you get there? The Nice Jazz Festival website blithely notes two out of several public buses to the site without bothering to mention that they stop running hours before the festival’s closing notes sound around midnight. The existence of the usual free shuttle from Place Massena to the festival is apparently a closely guarded secret. The chosen few that somehow found out about it were undoubtedly pleased to avoid the daunting prospect of finding a parking space around the festival.
In fact it was a lot easier than we thought to find parking since attendance was obviously far below previous years. Part of the problem is undoubtedly the weak economy but that can’t be the entire explanation. After all, U2 sold out last week even with a bottom ticket price of €87.50. Compared to that, €29 is a bargain especially since it included five acts–Lisa Ekdahl, McCoy Tyner, Jake Shimabukuro, Carla Bley and James Taylor–that are fairly well-known.
Jazz is less of a draw than rock; there’s no news there. Also the Arenes de Cimiez was closed for renovation. Making music within an open-air theatre of ancient Roman stones seemed to have inspired the long list of jazz greats that played in the Arenes. The improvised Matisse theatre just didn’t cut it as an alternative, especially since the sets were so short. McCoy Tyner and his trio with Bill Frisell were just getting warmed up when it was time to wrap up after an hour.
All the artists gave it their best, especially a vibrant James Taylor at the end, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the rumors come true and the festival heads to the Jardins Albert 1 in central Nice next year.
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Jazz lovers, listen up! The line-up for the Nice Jazz Festival 2009 has just been announced. You’ll be pleased to know that the Nice Jazz Festival will be concentrating on–get this!–jazz this year. It has not always been the case but the ‘return to roots’ trend that began last year will apparently continue. The festival will still be in Nice‘s Cimiez (despite certain rumblings about changing the locale because of noise complaints) and will run from July 18 to July 25. So, without further ado, here is the schedule:
Saturday 18 July : Brad Mehldau Trio, Raul Midon, Joshua Redman Trio, Tracy Chapman, Alain Clark
Sunday 19 July: Aldo Romano “Just Jazz”, Lucky Peterson, Nneka, Keziah Jones, Yodelice
Monday 20 July: Christian Vander Quartet, Joe Bonamassa, Susan Tedeschi, B.B. King, Madeleine Peyroux
Tuesday 21 July: Keith Emerson Band, Magma, Joe Jackson, Priscilla Ahn, + an artist to be announced
Wednesday 22 July: McCoy Tyner Quartet with Bill Frisell, Lisa Ekdahl, Carla Bley Big Band, James Taylor, Jake Shimabukuro
Thursday 23 July: The Derek Trucks Band, Maxime Le Forestier, Richard Galliano Quartet, Julien Doré, Gabriella Cilmi
Friday 24 July: Melody Gardot, Raphael Saadiq, Chick Corea & Gary Burton, Youssou’N Dour, Molly Johnson
Saturday 25 July: Bozilo, Sonny Rollins, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Charles Lloyd New Quartet, Gagnant du tremplin off, + an artist to be announced
Tickets are on sale from Wednesday April 1 and prices run from €29 to €49 with a supplement of €2 for buying on site.
For more information see a practical guide to the Nice Jazz Festival. To buy tickets go to the Nice Jazz Festival Site
Finally! The Nice Jazz Festival is returning to jazz. After an increasingly pop-rock-funk program the last five or six years, the new director, Gerard Drouot is returning the festival to its jazzy roots. Here’s a preview of the 2008 Jazz Festival that runs from July 19 through July 25.
- July 19: Archie Shepp, Avishai Cohen, Rufus Wainwright, Stacey Kent
- July 20: Ibrahim Maalouf, Barbara Hendricks, The Magnus Lindgren Quartet, Hocus Pocus, George Benson.
- July 21: Sanseverino, Stefano De Battista, Diana Krall
- July 22: Maria Schneider Orchestra, Leonard Cohen, Maceo Parker
- July 23: Nigel Kennedy, Jean-Luc Ponty, Return to Forever (Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, Lenny White
- July 24: Hubert-Felix Thiefaine, Paul Personne, Michel Portal, San Francisco Jazz Collective, Alain Bashung
- July 25: Garry Burton Quartet with Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow, Antonio Sanchez, Johy Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Yael Naim, AaRON
- July 26: Bonobo, Pink Martini, Craig Adams, Joan Baez
What a pleasure. OK, the tickets are a little more expensive than usual, ranging from €31 to €51 on “prestige nights” (such as the first concert by Leonard Cohen in 15 years) but this is a good thing. The last few years the concerts have been a crowded, miserable mess in which you spent more time dodging hyped-up toddlers than listening to the music.
As in previous years, the concerts will take place in the Arenes de Cimiez, the verdant hill with Roman ruins in east Nice.
Tickets are on sale now; see the Nice Jazz Festival site for more information.