EUROPA JAZZ FESTIVAL in LE MANS (France)

More than just a festival, Europajazz today comes on all year! Europajazz after the season ends in early March after the remaining three of the four seasons of the festival: the Europajazz Regional Round of 2 to 19 March, the Europajazz High School March 22 April 2 and Europajazz Final April 3 to May 9 Here are more than 80 concerts (and many cultural activities in parallel) in 22 cities and 6 aeras including the course content remains true to our online art history: many creations (Sébastien Texier, Alban Darche, Michel Portal, Andy Emler, Michel Edelin), invitations to groups unpublished in France (Kris Defoort, Taylor Ho Bynum), the presence of marked young French musicians (Striking 10, Jean Louis, Dave Golitin, Burno, Trio d'En Bas) and a new wave of European youth talent (Francesco Bearzatti, Lotte Anker, Kris Defoort, Mikko Innanen), not forgetting the iconic figures of jazz history (Liz McComb, Miroslav Vitous, Arild Andersen) and some musicians which marked the festival's history which we can not do without (Andy Emler, Daunik Lazro, Tony Malaby, Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, Lubat Bernard, Michel Portal, Sylvain Luc ...)!

02 au 19 mars Daniel Humair Baby Boom Régional Tour 10 concerts en Pays de La Loire et en Basse Normandie : Trelaze (02) Haute-Goulaine (03) Mamers (05) Bagnoles de l’Orne (06) La Ferté-Bernard (10) Cholet (11) Le Lude (12) Saint-Berthevin (13) Saint-Symphorien (18) La Roche sur Yon (19).


22 mars au 02 avril : Europajazz au Lycée 11 concerts du trio Jean Louis ou du duo Hélène Labarrière/Roland Brival en Pays de La Loire et en Basse-Normandie : Lycée de Rouillon (22/03) Lycée Agricole de Laval (23/03) Lycée Touchard Le Mans (23/03) Lycée Navarre Alençon (25/03) Lycée Yourcenar le Mans (25/03) Lycée E de Constant La Flèche (25/03) Lycée Plessis Mornay Saumur (29/03) Lycée Navarre Alençon (30/03) Lycée Roussel Le Mans (30/03) Lycée Bergson Angers (01/04) Mjc Ronceray (2) (02/04).


03 avril : 6ème Nuit de la Salsa Alexander Abreu Y Havana d’Primera Le Mans


12 au 17 avril : Europajazz Têtes Blanches Tour Alexis Lambert /Karine Jarry duo 6 concerts dans les Maisons de retraite de la Sarthe.


24 avril : 12 ème Europajazz en Balade « 500 musiciens prennent la République » 16 concerts en centre ville Le Mans : Old Jazz Corporation, Bernic Jazz Band, Vinouze Jazz band, Jazz Potes, Gilbert Leroux Washboard Group, Cotton Belly’s, Dr Bones &The Blue Roots,Philippe Menard One Man band, Sandra Duclau quartet, Guitar Junior Band, 6 Harmonies Sarthoises….


25 avril au 02 mai : Europajazz final (1ère semaine) : Sylvain Luc solo (La Flèche-27/04), Classes de Jazz Régional Meeting (Le Mans-27/04), Europajazz au Collège avec Costel Nitescu, Mister Joss Blues Band, Elmore D group (Collège Berthelot Le Mans, Collège de Mayet, Collège de Mamers), Dave Golitin/Stéphane Galland (Le Mans-28/04), Balake Sissoko/Vincent Segal duo – Marc Morvan/Ben Jarry duo (Allonnes-28/04), Costel Nitescu quartet (Beaumont Pd B-29/04), 4èmeNuit de l’Euroblues avec Nina Attal, Elmore D group, Mister Joss Blues Band (Coulaines-29/04), Liz Mc Comb « Soul Peace & love » (Le Mans- 30/04), Ze Blue Note création Opéra-Théatre pour Chœur d’Enfant avec Michel Edelin Quintet et les élèves de l’Ecole de musique de Sargé (Sargé–02 /05).


04 au 09 mai : Europajazz final (2ème semaine) : L’Orphéon Celesta spectacle jeune public (Coulaines-04 et 05 /05), Le Gros Cube « Queen Bishop » création (Le Mans-04/05), Daunik Lazro solo, Burno, l’Amusicien d’Uz de Bernard Lubat (Le Mans-05/05), Tony Malaby solo, Trio d’En Bas, Andy Emler & Big Band universitaire du Maine, Andy Emler/Marc Ducret duo création, Andy Emler Megaoctet invite Marc Ducret (Le Mans-06/05), Barre Phillips/David Philipps « Basfidel », Radiation 10, Arild Andersen Belleville trio, Sébatien Texier trio play Paul Motian création, Miroslav Vitous group « Remembering Weather Report » (Le Mans-07/05), Barry Guy/Maya Homburger, Délirium, Kris Defoort trio, Lotte Anker trio, Francesco Bearzatti Tinissima quartet (Le Mans-08/05), Agusti Fernandez Aurora Trio, Taylor Ho Bynum Positive Catastrophe, Michel Portal New Project création (Le Mans-09/05).

The Europajazz has 31 years, of course! But energy is still there! The will challenge too! The desire to escape the comfort habits and certainties programming is constant. So We offer new venues of distribution, we think of further meetings with all audiences and create new departmental networks, regional, national or European. Everything Simply, we offer every jazz by adapting to each Used the ideal project, bringing the musician and his audience! The Lycée Europajazz created in 2007, the College Europajazz created in 2009, the class jazz Regional Meeting established 2009, new projects with the School of Music or the Sarge Big Band University of Maine as the new Passport Card tarifs hyper Supersaver "and the creation of Club Partners "Clubbin'jazz" are all new projects coming show our continuing ability to renew! While this 31st edition - this Europajazz Final after a great season concert, looks terrific! But now the word is musicians. It is they who, from March 2, you will live exceptional moments. To better find them, ask the program! 

Jean-Marie Rivier, President
Armand Meignan Director

All the concerts

JazzCorner's newsletter

JazzCorner.com has been the home of the ECM forums: to discuss and learn 'everything ECM' for close to three years, and so we take with great pleasure and pride to inform you about three current releases from ECM

Paul Motian, Chris Potter and Jason Moran: Lost in a Dream - released March 9th

In February 2009, Paul Motian convened this trio for a special project at New York’s Village Vanguard. From a week of concert recordings, Motian and producer Manfred Eicher subsequently selected the material presented on Lost In A Dream. The album puts an emphasis on balladry, using ballads as vehicles for profound soloing and group playing. In these touching performances of Paul’s songs, increasingly open to improvisational intervention, we get to learn more of the specific capacities of the featured musicians - and of the potential of this combination of players.

Amongst the very first artists to appear on ECM, with Paul Bley’s trio and then with Keith Jarrett’s "American Quartet", Paul Motian’s career as a leader was begun at the label. Conception Vessel was soon followed by other important musical statements including Tribute, Dance, Le Voyage, Psalm and It Should Have Happened A Long Time Ago. His 21st century output for ECM includes two albums with his trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano, as well as Garden of Eden with the Paul Motian Band. He can also be heard on Enrico Rava’s Tati and New York Days and discs with Marilyn Crispell and Anat Fort.

The Paul Motian Trio with Greg Osby (replacing Chris Potter) appearing at New York's Village Vanguard THIS WEEK - March 16-21.

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Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu: Chiaroscuro – released: March 16th

American master guitarist Ralph Towner may collaborate rarely, but his choices in partners have always been beyond astute. For this exciting new duo, of unusual, yet highly attractive instrumentation, he introduces a new partner in the form of Italian trumpet star Paolo Fresu whose remarkably pure and elegant tone is reminiscent of early Miles Davis. Towner’s compositions offer continually changing landscapes for Fresu’s horn to grace, in poetic and lyrical pieces which feature gradations of light and shade, of sound and shadows. Chiaroscuro introduces a new duo and a rare instrumental combination - trumpet and acoustic guitar. The repertoire: a program of old and new Ralph Towner compositions and duo improvisations, plus an old Miles Davis favorite, its presence a key to the musical priorities at work here.

The album was recorded in October 2008 in Udine, but the story of the Towner/Fresu alliance really begins further South, at a festival in Sardinia, 15 years ago. Towner had been commissioned to write music for a local ensemble. Fresu was its trumpeter. "I didn’t know him at all then," Ralph recalls, "but from the very first phrase that he played, I thought: 'This guy really understands melodies!' And I thought there and then that we should do some more work together."

The composition played that night, "Punta Giara", resurfaces here in rearranged form, along with pieces shaped especially for this album, including the title track, a study in strong contrasts. The atmospheric "Sacred Place", heard in two versions, and "Doubled Up" bring Towner’s new baritone guitar to the fore. Tuned a fifth below his classical concert guitar it allows him new flexibility in the low range, and the freedom to be, effectively, his own bassist on the clever “Doubled Up”, the most overtly jazz-like of the new tunes. "'Doubled up' has many meanings, of course, including doubled up with laughter. Here the theme is sequenced, so to speak, the events happen twice, each theme 'doubled'’ by the two players."

Ralph Towner and Paolo Fresu will be performing:
March 23rd at the Regatta Bar (Boston, MA)
March 24th at the Italian Academy at Columbia University (New York, NY) March 27th at YBCA Forum (San Francisco, CA)
March 28th at The Triple Door (Seattle, WA)

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Tord Gustavsen Ensemble: Restored, Returned – released: February 9th

After three wonderful trio albums Gustavsen branches off in new directions adding two players familiar to ECM listeners – bassist Mats Eilertsen and saxophonist Tore Brunborg – and introducing the blues-inflected voice of Kristin Asbjørnsen on Tord's gorgeous settings of the poetry of W.H. Auden.

On JazzCorner.com's ECM Forum, Restored, Returned, has become an active discussion.

Tord Gustavsen Ensemble will be performing: March 28th at YBCA Forum (San Francisco, CA) and March 31st at Merkin Concert Hall, (New York, NY)

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SPECIAL BONUS for U.S. readers of JazzCorner's newsletter: A free poster of any of the titles mentioned above. ECM will mail them directly to you. Just email JazzCorner with subject line as ECM Poster and include your snail mail address.

Peace and light
Lois Gilbert
Managing Director
Jazzcorner®.com