The love affair between jazz and the French Riviera is now more than seven decades in the making. It began after World War Two, when Sidney Bechet and Duke Ellington fell in love with the region. From then on, there was a sense that jazz floated in the air each summer, with African-American icons arriving to play intimate shows to crowds that often gave them more reverence and respect than they received back home. In fact, jazz festivals are said to have been invented in the region, with lineups gathering the world’s most exciting acts from near and far.
1958 was a marquee year, with the Festival de Cannes playing host to an all-star group of truly iconic artists. This compilation, directed fabulously by Jean-Christophe Averty, features stars like Dizzy Gillespie and Coleman Hawkins, as well as old boogie-woogie masters, like the incomporable Sammy Price, exciting up-and-comers, like the future hall-of-famer saxophonist Stan Getz, plus a host of some of the best French-speaking jazz artists of the day: Bobby Jaspar, Claude Gousset, Henri Renaud, Guy Lafitte ...
It was a special environment, one that makes you wish time travel was real. This second compilation kicks off with an interview by Dixieland trumpeter Teddy Buckner who takes us through his experiences playing alongside the legenday Kid Ory, one of the pioneers of jazz in New Orleans. Remarkable footage.
