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Back issues of Just Jazz magazine are available • Telephone Sylvia on 020 8317 3837
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Front cover picturesKen Grayson Mills • Icon LP 7: by courtesy of Eric J. Brown and Per OldaeusKen Colyer: by courtesy of Fritz PetersFest Jazz: © Alain EpaillardJazz is Alive: by Robert ColesJazzAscona 2017: by Chris Krenger
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12 issues for the price of 10DisclaimerAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in anyform or by any other means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the priorpermission, in writing, of Mike Murtagh. Whilst every efforthas been made to ensure accuracy, the publisher cannot acceptresponsibility for errors or omissions. Submission of articlesand/or other material for consideration is welcomed, on theunderstanding that if accepted and subsequently published,no payments will be made to contributors. The viewsexpressed in articles or reviews in this magazine are notnecessarily those of the production/editorial team. Allcommunications (letters, faxes, emails) will only be consideredfor publication if the writer’s name and full address is given.Communications sent which are not meant for publicationshould be clearly marked as such.
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FestJazzChâteauneuf-du-FaouBrittany • July 2017
Having visited Châteauneuf-du-Faou Fest Jazz in Brittany in 2016,as a participating musician, I was
wondering how it would feel to be therethis year as a paying customer. I loved it!The freedom to wander at will, dippingin and out, was wonderful. The setting inthis small village in the centre of Brittanyis ideal with the main stage marqueeand other smaller marquee venues locat-ed along the banks of the River Aulne
Audrey LeclairThe Sweet Peppers
EDITORIALWhy have bands’ repertoiresdiminished over the years??
Go back to the 1950s thru’ 1970s,a Traditional jazz band’s reper-toire would contain tunes from
the Classic jazz era, that’s Jelly RollMorton to King Oliver, etc, to the NewOrleans Revival, Bunk and Georgealong with Kid Ory. This would betantamount to a good evening’senjoyment. A half a dozen bandsmanaged to continue this trend overthe next twenty years, but with thedemise of some of our top musiciansthe impetus for performance hasdiminished, with most bands justhappy to play their way through aprogramme of jazz standards.
It gets embarrassing when the fansask for tunes and you have to explainthat we don’t do them anymore, thatthe trumpet player doesn’t knowthem or banjo or piano player hasn’tgot the chords. Have we as musiciansgot that lazy? I understand the phi-losophy of ‘playing it safe’, but anygood working unit should be able tothrow in versions of Steamboat Stomp,Mabel’s Dream, Dusty Rag and YakkaHula Hicki Dula during a gig.
Okay, we have lost the likes of Sims,Elsdon, Colyer, Halcox, Ball, Cohen,Morris, even Phil Mason, etc, our‘fountainheads’ when it came to play-ing a mixed repertoire. What theyplayed, we followed. It’s sad thatbecause we have lost them, that noone else is taking hold of the reins.Not even amongst our more youthfulplayers – that’s a shame as they aremore than capable of doing it – but‘playing safe’ has become the norm.That’s sad! n
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close to the municipal campsite. Several locations in the villagealso host performances throughout the festival. France beingFrance, food is never far away, with several outlets on the festi-val site itself, including a dedicated food marquee.
Each year hundreds of bands apply for a place in the programmewhich is possibly a reason for the wide range of musical styleson parade, all drawing their influence from 100 years of ‘jazz’and other genres. Once again this festival was notable for thehigh percentage of fine young performers clearly influenced by‘first hand’ exposure via the Internet to the real thing, loving the
music and playing theirsocks off.
The programme kicked offas usual on Thursdayevening at the riversideTar al Pont venue with alively session from theSweet Peppers (Montpel-lier) followed by Dorine deWit and Jamie Brown-field’s set of rocking blues(with a hint of ska). TheFrog and Henry blues/jazz/string band from NewOrleans (and elsewhere) had assembled by now and gave animpromptu performance to round off the evening. This was ourfirst opportunity to hear the wonderful Leonie Evans sing theblues and listen to this fine collective of New Orleans streetmusicians. For many they were the stars of the festival, withthree past and present members of Tuba Skinny combiningwith clarinet, violin and mandolin banjo to play a wonderfulmix of blues, jazz, string band, Ragtime, and dance band stylesfrom the ‘20s and ‘30s. Superb!
Throughout the weekend over 20 bands performed severaltimes each, in sets which were usually restricted to 75 minutes.This seemed to keep fans on the move and added to the livelyatmosphere. I recommend going to the festival website:www.fest-jazz.com and following the various links to get anidea of the variety and very high standard of musicianship atthis festival.
The main stage with its synchronised light show and othereffects (get over it!) proved to be agood backdrop for some of themore ‘serious’ performers such asOla Onabule, the Agathe JazzQuartet and through to the less‘serious’ but very entertainingGunhild Carling band. At the samevenue on Friday evening pianistJames Compton set the marqueerocking and the dancers hoppingwith his driving Fats Domino/RayCharles influenced performance.
On Saturday morning in the vil-lage square the local mayor andhis deputy officially welcomedFest Jazz to the village once again,giving their blessing to the pro-ceedings in the form of copiouscomplimentary wine for all. After
Jack Cotterill, Jamie Brownfield, Dorine de Wit
Fernando Morrison • Sweet Peppers
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which 13-year-old Manouche guitarist Elliot Busca, with hisdad on rhythm guitar, appeared to effortlessly follow in thefootsteps of Django.
There is a serious and contagious Lindy-Hop following for thisfestival which was apparent all round the village where dancerscould be relied upon to spring into action at any opportunity.On Sunday afternoon the dancers turned out en masse to sup-port local band, Good Time Jazz, who gave them exactly whatthey were looking for – a good time!
Meeting up with other aficionados to discuss/dissect perfor-mances was always interesting – particularly as there were somany bands we had never heard before – lively discussionsand frank opinions, as drink would have been taken!
One of the most enjoyable aspects of any musical gathering isthe un-rehearsed moment and we were not to be disappointedwhen, on Sunday evening, Dorine de Wit and the gang, havingperformed their final set, were besieged on stage by the forcethat is Gunhild Carling. It appears that Gunhild ‘streams’ (broad-casts) live to the world every Sunday evening at 8pm – wherev-er in the world she happens to be at the time. So, as it was now8pm on a Sunday evening, we got the Gunhild and Dorine show,where not everyone knew all the tunes but – what the heck –the world got to see what fun jazz music can be. For team UK,Dorine charmed us with her version of Everywhere You Go, TomKincaid’s solo in a scarily rapid version of Tiger Rag brought thehouse down, Jamie Brownfield took it all in his stride acceptinga once-in-a-lifetime ‘Strictly’ opportunity to waltz round thestage with Gunhild, whilst Dave Vaughan calmly held it alltogether on reeds.
Gunhild herself is a fine musician, which can sometimes beoverlooked as she literally tap-dances her way between various
instruments from trumpetto harmonica via bagpipes,etc; but listen carefully andyou will hear tone andphrasing, particularly ontrombone, which manyplayers would be veryhappy to possess…andshe is a real entertainer!
Closing the festival onSunday night Ben Tourygave a virtuoso piano per-formance scattered with astunning combination of styles. He looks like he really enjoysthe noise a piano can make …and so did I.
In 2016 and 2017 we stayed at a B&B in the village where wewere made most welcome. We have already booked for nextyear. For more details on the festival, go tohttp://www.fest-jazz.com/english n
Mike Lunn Cornwall
Comments from visitors to Fest Jazz 2017What a wonderful time we had. With the exception of the Dorinede Wit band, the 20+ bands were new to us. Deciding who youare going to see is made easier as most of the bands play severaltimes over the festival. It was such a delight to see and hear somany young bands with different sounds, from different coun-tries; their happy smiling faces and interaction with each otherand the audience soon had our toes tapping and hands clapping.Definitely something for everyone to enjoy.
We like to dance, which is very much encouraged, the main tentshaving wooden floors, and at other venues we managed to find aspace. Sometimes it was just great to sit and watch the youngdancers, so full energy and enthusiasm. When it came to eatingon site there was plenty of choice and all at reasonable prices.
Great festival with great organisation. Thanks to all involved.”Linda and Kevin Peace Leicestershire
I had a brilliant time. It was the first time I had been to Fest Jazz.It was such an amazing festival; the only way to truly explain itto those who have not been before, is to encourage them to go sothat they can absorb the whole gorgeousness of the event forthemselves.
I love to dance, and Fest Jazz actively encouraged all styles ofdancing, which is fantastic. The bands wanted people to dance,which in turn showed an ultimate appreciation and enjoyment oftheir music.
Fest Jazz was great because of all the mixture of age groups ofvisitors and musicians alike. The Festival oozed an atmosphere of
Gunhilde Carling strutting her stuff, under the watchful eyes of Benjamin Faconnier andSammy Khalfoune (Sweet Peppers) +
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Niklas Carlsson • Second Line Jazz Band
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the blended energies of carefree youthfulness and unrestrainedgrown-up-ness of maturity. I found it a superbly organised festi-val where everyone was welcome. I will be going again.”Louise Rutlidge North Cornwall
It was my first time at a Jazz Festival (yes, ever!) and what a goodtime it was! Great company, great music, beer, food and atmos-phere. I absolutely love it and wouldn’t hesitate to go again!”Shaun Gifford North Cornwall
Duelling Banjos and New Orleans Girl Power!’
Ithink that just about sums up this year’s edition of FestJazz, the 13th edition, but certainly not an unlucky one!Many bands were led by women singing, playing or even
dancing. We were very lucky as the ‘Dorine de Wit Band withJamie Brownfield’ to be asked back, as the festival protocoldictates that bands to not get a second innings two years in arow! A festival where you cannot predict the unexpected. Lastyear we ended up on television whilst we were playing onrowing boats in our time off, and this year some of the bandended up being live streamed to 100,000 Gunhild Carling fansaround the world.
A festival for me is like a place to meet new friends, listen tosome truly wonderful music (which in the musicians’ areawould go on and on and on), eat dinner with all festival vol-unteers and musicians three times a day, and just to be sur-rounded by a good vibe which is hard to find elsewhere! Thelighting on the main stage is something else and is one of thefive stages by the pretty river that runs through Châteauneuf-du-Faou.
I take my hat off to Ewan Bleach (reeds – Frog and Henry) whodidn’t stop playing all weekend. Each night he and all the othermembers of Frog and Henry and Sweet Peppers and othersplayed during the jam session, but on the Saturday night Ewanled the jam session which was 20+ big. It consisted prettymuch of all the musicians of Frog and Henry, Sweet Peppers,the Second Line Jazz Band and Jamie Brownfield, so you canimagine, at least three of each instrument; yet, it did not soundlike a house was on fire – it sounded like a band that I washappy listening to. It was organised, and it was music. Andthat, to me, says more about the musicianship that comes toFest Jazz than anything else! So I take my hat off to AngelinaBeauvir and Trevor Stent (the organisers) for putting it alltogether and keeping the music alive!
(N.B. The journey to Fest Jazz is such an easy one from the UK.Plymouth-Roscoff and just over an hour’s drive in France. Onceyou are there you don’t need the car until you leave!) n
Dorine de Wit www.dorinedewit.com
All photographs, including front cover © Alain Epaillard
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Frog and Henry • band members below
Ewan Bleach (reeds)
Ryan Baer (guitar)
Robin Rapuzzi (washboard)
Above: Leonie EvansRight: Maxwell Poulos
Coleman Aiken Todd Burdick
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