Jazz à Mulhouse was my last summer festival. What a nice end. It could not have been better.
It was the 23rd edition of the festival. Check out the programme by clicking on the title of this posting... The festival has two venues, the
Chappelle St-Jean where it was each day a free concert at 12.30. After that, an apperitif was offered under the trees outside of the chapel.
The evening venue was
Noumatrouff, with a first free concert at 18.30, then a "dinner" break, and then the rest of the concerts (3), until about 12.30-1am. None of the concert are overlapping, meaning that i saw all the 23 gigs of the festival :-) At Noumatrouff there are also several tables covered with cds to buy, and of course always enough time between the gigs for browsing through and buying too much... Noumatrouff has also a bar, and two stands outside with warm food (dont forget to try the fruit pies, each day different, yum!).
The venues are quickly crowded, so you have to show up early, or have some plan... aheeeem... (un grand merci à Jean-Claude!!)
The whole festival is very well organized and has a very relaxed atmosphere. After the noon concert at the chapel, it was possible to meet up with people at the restaurant "
Le Petit Zinc" and sit all together at a long table, and try one of the local meals from the menu.
I liked absolutely all the noon gigs at the Chappelle St-Jean. A perfect acoustic which enhanced the projects of great artists. Hm, i think my favourite in this serie was the solo of Swiss drummer/percussionist
Pierre Favre.It was many nice concerts at Noumatrouff. Everything was interesting at least. But my favourite were:
-
The Fish (France): Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto sax), Edward Perraud (drums) and Benjamin Duboc (bass). Phew. Great kickass gig.
-
Brötzmann Quartet with Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler and Michael Zerang.
- The Swiss trio:
Türköz/Studer/Zimmerlin: Saadet Türköz (voice), Fredy Studer (drums), Alfred Zimmerlin (cello).
-
DoppelMoppel (Germany): Johannes Bauer (trombone), Connie Bauer (trombone), Uwe Kropinski (guitar), Helmut "Joe" Sachse (guitar). A mix of improvised jazz, blues, rock and flamenco.
Also on the agenda, the legendary
duo Bennink/Brötzmann, and a wonderful
solo of Evan Parker at the Bain Municipaux (with Parker playing in the half emptied swimming pool).
Altough the time for leaving came, still a nice feeling when everybody says "A l'année prochaine!". I cross fingers that it will work out for me to visit the festival again in 2007...
And a big thanks to the festival organizers
Adrian Chiquet and Paul Kanitzer (i forgot to ask him if he was a birdwatcher as well, since he was wearing each day a different t-shirt showing bird species...)
(movies coming!)
