Concentrated, Franck, Seb, Nino, Philippe, Abdelkader, François, Christophe and Jean throw themselves, brass and percussion, into an old New Orleans jazz hit. Only the red cords of the “visitor” badges differentiate the professional musicians from the prisoners of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier (Isère). “They push the song well”, appreciates a spectator, white T-Shirt and dark glasses, on one of the benches installed in the gymnasium of the penitentiary center for the concert of restitution of the workshop piloted by the Jazz festival in Vienna.
Nino, one of the three saxophonists, is the star of the day. This 39-year-old prisoner, who had never touched an instrument before this musical workshop, composed Riding my jail – “ride my prison” – the third title of the short program. “I’ve been in prison for seven years, it was now or never to learn how to play… The result we got in 8 sessions is huge!” Says this funk lover . He began to compose “like that”, in his cell, with, for the transcription, the help of a fellow prisoner who “knows the notes”.
“Frankly Nino, you assured, your solo was too good, your composition was perfect”, launches Franck, the trumpet player. Halfway through his four years in prison, this forties experienced the jazz sessions as “little positive apostrophes”. François Rigaldies, one of the three musicians sent by Jazz to Vienna, himself recognizes that Nino is “quite exceptional”, even if “the saxophone is an instrument which can be played quite quickly, unlike the trumpet or the trombone”.
“It’s a huge chance to have access to all that in the detention center, to see people from outside (…) it’s a bubble that brings you out of the prison context”, insists Nino who followed the workshop with five other inmates. “There are not many activities”, the jazz moment in the gymnasium “it allows us to escape a little”, abounds David, a fifties with short hair, among the thirty prisoners admitted to restitution.
Present at the concert, the director of the Penitentiary Service for Integration and Probation (SPIP) of Isère, Rachid Sdiri, readily acknowledges that with 550 prisoners and an occupancy rate of 187% in remand prison, overcrowding “creates tensions” and “strikes access to work, training and cultural activities”. He found the brassband “formidable” and welcomes the initiative of the organizers of the Vienna festival.
“It was stylish,” abounds Badir, 39, very happy to have had permission to attend the concert. “When they see that you are calm, they take you directly, that’s why we are here,” he said with laughter. “More activities in prison, that would be good (…), we have become boredom professionals”, insists Nino. It annoys him that some “think it’s a privilege to play music or do boxing: if prison were so easy, there wouldn’t be this explosion in the number of people who commit suicide”.
The musicians of the Lyon collective Skokiaan Brass Band had never worked in a prison environment. “When we were offered it, we didn’t know what we were going to do, where we were going to set foot,” explains François Rigaldiès. But “music is a great way to communicate (…), there are a lot of moments of talking about what we do here or outside”, he says, explaining that the experience has “deconstructed (his ) image of prison”. His colleague Christophe Durand for his part appreciated the “strong energy” of the rehearsals, “for the prisoners, it is a real breath of fresh air, a window on the outside”.
“It’s a time of exchange, of sharing… We find ourselves on a common musical point while we have divergent opinions on what we listen to”, underlines Franck who had learned the trumpet in his youth but everything stopped for twenty years. Exceptionally authorized to keep his instrument in the cell for the workshop, he would like to continue but “in a prison it is impossible”. Nino went back to the detention center with the promise that he could play the sax in his cell. Music softens morals “and nothing prevents a prisoner from keeping an instrument (…) but security guarantees are needed”, according to the departmental director.
