îlOJazz – carrefour des musiques créoles, édition 2011 du 12 au 18 décembre

GUADELOUPE

îlOJazz – carrefour des musiques créoles, édition 2011 is on again, for the third time.  Centered in the municipalities of Pointe-à-Pitre and Abymes, Guadeloupe, Festival îlOJazz is a well-rounded event that is not only about live music.

More broadly, this festival, which runs from December 12-18, 2011, is on a mission to “enhance Caribbean musical expressions and facilitate their dissemination locally and eventually internationally.”  This goal is enhanced by the creation of the Caribbean Network for Kreyol Creative Industries that unites all territories sharing the common Creole language – Martinique, Guyane, Haiti, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, France and for the first year, Dominica.

The network is Lamentin Jazz Project, Biguine Jazz Festival and CMAC, Martinique; Jazz Collective, Guyane; Jazz in the South (Len LEONCE), Saint Lucia; Festival International de Jazz de Port-au-Prince (Milena SANDLER & Joel WIDMAIER), Haiti; Jazz n’Créole (Daphne VIDAL & Colin PIPER), Dominica; Vibration Caribbean, Paris.

Starting on December 12, 2011, la Communauté d’agglomération Cap Excellence, with the sponsorship of university lecturer and musician Fred Deshayes and the unqualified endorsement of la Direction régionale des affaires culturelles de Guadeloupe, is meeting its stated goal of supporting the development of Jazz in the French Department by putting on a series of master classes, film screenings and conferences along with the usual menu of concerts dubbed 3 scenes…3 Colors.  In this vein, there is the Afro Caribbean Scene at le Centre culturel sonis, Caribbean Urban Jazz Scene on the campus of l’Université Antilles Guyane, and the International Scene at la Place de la Victoire.  Two more  workshops were due to take place on Friday and Saturday of this week.  

Also on that first day was a conference on Jazz Festivals that brought together cultural personalities, academics and social scientists to address matters pertaining to the market economy the festivals generate; their goals in terms of cultural development and impact on the public, including the development of amateur and professional performing artists, their status and social roles; the issue of Jazz in the festival setting; teaching methods of improvised music; the sharing of Live music and works; Creole and Jazz.

Workshop facilitators were Incognito, Shiela E, Erol Josué. Festival îlOJazz ends on Sunday, December 18 following three consecutive days of quality performances by homegrown acts, Jacques Schwarz-Bart and Bwakoré and their distinguished guests, Incognito.

Taking a cue from the festival website, it is clear that these workshops were a manifestation of the need for sober reflection on the state of culture in Guadeloupe and its future in the face of the phenomenon of globalisation.

Headlining Scène Afro Caribéenne were Jean-Christophe Maillard, Karim Ziad & Ifrikya featuring Linley Marthe on bass and  Guadeloupean saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart who brought his most recent project, JACQUES SCHWARZ-BART & JAZZ RACINE HAÏTI, to le Centre culturel sonis on December 16.  Jazz Racine is Schwarz-Bart; Matew Hoenig (drums); Milan Milanovic (piano); Sam Parham Minaie (bass); Lee Tatum Greenblatt (trumpet); James Jean-Baptiste aka Tiga (percussion); Erol Josué (vocals).

l’Université Antilles Guyane is playing host to Scène Caribbean Urban Jazz  on December 17 when Incognito, Claudel Atride with drummer Eric Danquin and Bwakoré are down to appear.  Atride, a bass player, offers something new in the musical landscape of Guadeloupe with his mixture of Jazz & rap to produce an entrancing groove.  Bwakoré (Claude Césaire – piano); Alwin Lowensky – saxophone); José Zébina – drums); José Marierose – basse); Max Télèphe – saxophone, flute and vocals), is a group of old friends who, in looking for a new way to play that leaves plenty of freedom for each musician, has taken the traditional rhythms of Martinique and mixed them with modern music and Jazz.

Festival îlOJazz – carrefour des musiques créoles, édition 2011 calls it judged on Sunday, December 18.  Bringing down the curtains is vocalist Leeddyah Barlagne Project and Shiela E.

Festival International de Jazz de Port-au-Prince rises again [updated with news on Pauline Jean workshop, March 06]

HAITI

adapted from le Bananier bleu with additional reporting by the WEC

Just a little over a year after the January 12, 2010 earthquake disaster in Haiti, the Festival de Jazz de Port-au-Prince was back on track at the behest of la Fondation Haïti Jazz.

What a great lesson in courage, optimism and tenacity!

The festival, the 5th edition, was held nightly from February 19-26, 2011 at several locations in the city of Port-au-Prince, namely Karibe Hotel, L’Institut Français d’Haïti, L’Institute Haitiano Américain et le Parc Historique de la Canne à Sucre.  The days were filled with training workshops targeting young Haitian Jazz musicians.

Fifty young musicians participated in a workshop called “The Roots of Jazz: introduction to Blues, Negro Spirituals” given by the stunning Haitian-American vocalist, January 25.  Jean sought to answer the question, “What is Jazz” and put this musical trend within in a historical context for the students.

According to her, “Jazz is a musical language that has its roots in African-American communities in the South-eastern United States in the early 20th century.  The style combines the musical traditions of West Africa and Europe.  Jazz as any musical style draws on three basic concepts: rhythm, melody and harmony.”

The Berklee College of Music graduate evoked the history of New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. “New Orleans is a landmark in the history of Jazz,” she said. “But it is partly due to the contribution of Haitian migrants who doubled the French population of Louisiana after the 1804 Haitian revolution that Jazz was established in the United States. ”

The singer reviewed the various styles that enrich the annals of Jazz before dwelling on the Blues which she defined as a state of mind that suggests sadness, struggle and suffering.

The subject of improvisation fuelled the debate in the auditorium of the L’institut Haitiano-américain. Jean explained that improvisation plays a big role in Jazz music.  “It’s like a conversation.  The Jazzman listens to his accomplices, talks to them.  In the tradition of Jazz, musicians are free to express their feeling, which is not always possible in other styles. Mushy Widmaier was closely following the debate and interjected that “this freedom is not synonymous with anarchy, as some conceive.”

Percussionist Marcus Schwartz, whose work has been highly appreciated for the emphasis he places on the language of the drums, added that the drum plays a crucial role in Jazz and is the mainstay of music in general.  He continued, Haiti has a rich rhythm like no other.  Each “Lakou,” each region, has its specificity.  This is one of the few African countries where the tradition in its entirety or almost, is perennial.  He cited the variety of drums – Ibo, Nago and Dahomey – not found easily elsewhere. Schwartz believes it is important for Haiti to hold on to its roots, the traditions it has to offer to the world.

Assisting Jean in demonstrating the role of the different instrument in the language of Jazz were Mimi Jones (bass), Willerm Delisfort (piano), Shirazette Tinnin (drums). [Translated and paraphrased from “Pauline Jean creuse les racines du jazz” by Nélio Joseph]

Pauline's Musical Offering at the Haitian-American Institute in P-au-P Feb. 25, 2011. (Photos by Roberto Stephenson)

Of course, Haitian artists, among them singer Pauline Jean and pianist Mushy Widmaier, were featured prominently.  But there was a strong foreign presence from Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Canada and the United States with saxophonist and flautist Jane Bunnett and pianist Aaron Goldberg leading the line-up.

The French Antilles and France was also well-represented by percussionist Mino Cinelu from Martinique.

The theme for Festival International de Jazz de Port-au-Prince 2011 was Ayiti pi djamn ak Jazz meaning “Haiti, Stronger with the Jazz.”

Festival International de Jazz de Port-au-Prince 2010 fades to black

Haiti

This is the plan: Cuban pianist Elio Villafranca lands in Haiti this weekend for Festival International de Jazz de Port-au-Prince 2010.  Villafranca has been hired by Canadian saxophonist/flautist Jane Bunnett for her January 23 – 25 FIJPaP concerts.  Bunnett then leaves Haiti, but Villafranca stays on at the behest of Haitian singer Pauline Jean.

Jane Bunnett

In such a strong genre as Cuban piano, (and I’ve been lucky to perform and record with some of the greats … Frank Emilio, Hilario Durán, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Chucho Valdés) Elio is the next great voice to check out!  His compositions and his playing are extensions of each other (a little like Monk).  He’s a thinking man’s Cuban jazz pianist and continually inspires and surprises me.  His surprises often come where the lines of composition and performance are blurred into one, that is, when spontaneous improvisations sound like full pre-meditated compositions. (eliovillafranca.net)

Pauline Jean is booked for five consecutive nights including one at the Institut Francais d’Haiti at Port- au- Prince (January 27) and a second at Parc Historique de la Cannes à Sucre in Tabare (January 30).  The venues for the other dates on January 26, 28 and 29 are not given at last check.  Jean’s other band members for Festival International de Jazz are named.  They are Mimi Jones (bass), drummer Shirazette Tinnin – whom I had the pleasure of meeting in May at Jazz on the Hill – and Markus Schwartz (percussion).

The Berklee trained Jean is a New Yorker, born of Haitian parents.  It is that background that has fed her arrangements of Jazz and Blues with the traditional Afro-Haitian vibe that becomes her.  The character she brings to the genre has in turn taken her to attractive opposites in the 2nd Annual Women in Jazz Festival and the Haitian Jazz Festival as well as Reggae Vibes in St. Kitts and Nevis.

Her début CD, A Musical Offering (Sekonsa Record), is out since June.  She describes this recording, backed up as she is by bassist Corcoran Holt, whom we last sampled on Luther Franςois‘ Castries Underground and Jean Caze, a fixture on the Haitian Jazz scene, among others  as “swingin’,  bluesy and soulful.” (Pauline Jean on MySpace)

Can you tell?

Jazz Vocalist Pauline Jean performing “Beautiful Friendship” at her CD Release Concert on June 21, 2009 at Metropolitan Room (NYC)

Riyel, Vanessa & Alex Jacquemin with George Mel as a special invited guest were the other invited Haitian artistes from the United States.  Joining them would have been Dizwikara de Pierre Rigaud Chery and Natif Jazz Quartet de Claude Carré.

That was the plan.

This weekend was supposed to be a time to play songs of joy and laughter…something like this…

Instead it is a time of wailing, sorrow and tears…something like this…

Hmmm…

The world now revolves around Haiti as peoples from the four corners of the globe mobilize in response to the tremendous human suffering wreaked upon it by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of January 12, 2010.

Central to this outpouring of support is music.  Artists from across all genres have already begun to lend their talents and star power to draw in support, in cash and in kind, for our brothers and sisters who occupy one-third of the island of Hispaniola that they share with the Dominican Republic.

Not to be left out of the loop, Jazz artists are no more swinging their axes, blowing their horns, wielding their sticks, beating their drum heads and excercising their pipes just because, but rather for the cause.

For instance, Canadian flautist Jane Bunnett, who was due to perform at the International Festival de Jazz de Port-au-Prince this month, has a cause of her own to fulfill on January 28, 2010.   She has organized a fundraiser for that day at Hugh’s Room, 2261 Dundas St. W, Toronto.  More than that, Bunnett has pledged to do a whole series of such fundraisers for the people of Haiti.

Now we go across the waters from Port-au-Prince to Jamaica for an example of Haitians helping Haitians.  Singer, songwriter and producer JeanPaul Solomonoff, born to a Haitian mother and a Russian Polish Jewish father, will perform with Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander at the 2010 Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival, Jan. 24th-29th.  All proceeds are destined for the Clinton/Bush Haiti Fund. (As an added note, Claude Wilson of JamaicaMusic OFFBEAT has revealed that “…Etienne Charles joins Monty Alexander on main stage Thursday, January 28 at the Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival at the Greenfield Stadium just outside Montego Bay.”

More here…