The Nice Jazz Festival discreetly unveiled its program on April 18. According to Nice Matin, the event in the Riviera city is forced to tighten its belt. It will last four days instead of the usual five. Savings mainly due to fees, requested by some artists, increasingly high.
“We start, with greed, by making lists of dream or essential artists by imagining seeing them a few months later on the Masséna stage or that of the Théâtre de Verdure. Then we get into the hard part of availability, negotiations, renunciations, and we move our lines, we look elsewhere, ”explains Sébastien Vidal, the artistic director of the festival since 2013, in a press release.
The program is eclectic, ranging from pop to jazz big names for purists. A mixture of genres assumed for almost thirty years, to meet the varied tastes of the public. “A young generation is tumbling under full sail. A “band of young people” whose influences range from the most classic jazz to contemporary music, passing through electro and world music”, describes Sébastien Vidal in the press release. Immanuel Wilkins, Emile Londonien, Julius Rodriguez, Olivia Dean, Ludovic Louis, Adi Oasis, Edouard Pennes and Jalen Ngonda represent this generation.
The festival will give pride of place to “the new galaxy of contemporary jazz”, aptly named by the organizers, by offering GoGo Penguin, Hiromi or Laurent Coulondre. As for legends, Herbie Hancock returns to Nice; Sir Tom Jones, Dave Holland or even Big Chief Donald Harrison Jr. and Dianne Reeves will also be there.
Yuri Buenaventura and Roberto Fonseca will share the stage to the rhythms of old Cuban boleros. A tribute to Django Reinhardt will be paid 70 years after his death. “Without ever forgetting our openness to contemporary music with the formidable Hyphen Hyphen from Nice, and a detour to Africa with the young star of High Life Omah Lay”, specifies the artistic director. On the Masséna stage we will find Juliette Armanet and Mr.
In 1948, the first edition brought together Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt and Yves Montand. If this first lap revealed jazz to the public, it will be necessary to wait 23 years for the capital of the Côte d’Azur to put the cover back on. And it is at the Théâtre de Verdure, on the Nice coast, that the festival is once again organized. Having become annual, the event has since undergone modifications. It lasts less long, has opened up to other styles. But if the years pass, the essential remains. Already that year, Herbie Hancock was there.
The Nice Jazz Festival, from July 18 to 21 on the Masséna Stage and at the Théâtre de Verdure. The ticket office is open until May 2. nicejazzfestival.fr