Vive le Jazz! Festival celebrates the vivid and diverse world of Francophone jazz featuring international stars such as Émile Parisien and Jim Black on the stage of BMC’s Opus Jazz Club between 18–20 October. This year's festival programme, co-produced by BMC and Institut Français de Budapest, includes three projects that use acoustic music to help listeners step outside the confines of our everyday world.
The opening day of the festival, on the evening of 18 October, will feature a performance by Les Géants Terrestres, a female quartet of string trio and piano led by Anne Quillier. Their music sheds all genre labels: its sole purpose is to lift the listener's gaze from our machine-filled environment to the wonders of life.
Paul Jarret and Jim Black share a passion for the bold improvisation that characterizes free jazz, and both were immersed in the indie rock scene of the 90s. The project Ghost Songs, which comes to life on 19 October, was developed with Jozef Dumoulin and Julien Pontvianne. The deliberately simple melodies, almost reminiscent of pop or folk music, allow all four members to express their strong musical personalities both individually and together.
The festival will close with the world-famous duo of Émile Parisien and Roberto Negro, who will pay tribute to György Ligeti, born 100 years ago this year. The composer wrote his first string quartet, entitled Métamorphoses nocturnes, when he was just 30 years old and still under the influence of Bartók. The two representatives of the vitality and open-mindedness of European jazz did not merely arrange the work, but brought out its mysterious beauty with high-wire virtuosity through improvisation. The adaptation of Parisien and Negro, at times lyrical, at times mischievous, at times impetuous, but always coherent and natural, has been released on disc by ACT and received the highest rating, Choc, from the French Jazz Magazine in July.
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