Where:
16. Rue Pizay
69202
Lyon
France
Description:
WHAT'S ARFI
Association searching an imaginary folklore
Professional musicians partnership settled in Lyon since its foundation in 1977, Arfi is an indisputable joint success amid the European jazz scene. Performed by the Workshop de Lyon, the Marvelous Band (both group responsible for the creation of Arfi) and La Marmite Infernale, Arfi’s big band, their repertoire inhabits a wide musical universe: from modern jazz to improvised music, Arfi’s music speaks many languages. It is alive, learned and popular, traditional and modern, inspired, playful and played in all kind of circonstances.
Imaginative Families :
Arfi operates almost like a big family.
Every musician participates in the shaping of the ensemble fantasy world, this famed Folklore Imaginaire, playful and festive, unreasonable and spontaneous.
It is an unrestrained and multiform universe, made of various groups, as if they were branches of the same tree. In substance, Arfi is a kind of families’ family! Introductions if you please :
Groups
They’re the soul of the partnership and its spearhead.
From duet to big band. They are invited on a regular basis to perform in large music festivals in France and abroad but they also enjoy performing in clubs and small venues. Each band develops its own repertoire and language, attuned to its whims.
Shows
Where there’s a band, there’s a show. And Arfi musicians like to put up a show anytime they can. Open up and to cross their music with numerous aesthetic and human experiences (circus, gastronomy, theatre, dancing, streetlife and sheer partyingddf), Just also to meet different audiences and to have modern jazz heard where it is not expected (or even heard of!).
Cine-concerts
Since it first worked on Serguei Eisenstein’s The Potemkine in 1987, Arfi has developed a whole repertoire of “concert-movies”. Arfi doesn’t kowtow to fashion: its purpose is to make it possible for the audience to watch these old era movies with renewed freshness. Thanks to the live performances and to the modernity of the compositions these silent movies become alive right before your eyes.
Events
Arfi likes to invent, to devise and to think up unlikely encounters. in relation to a particular place, to some popular event or to some wild idea. Thus, they can take you, just for one Arfi Night, into a serialized music story full of events.
Pedagogy
From concerts for the young to classroom work, from improvisation and creative workshops to collaborations with amateur bands (wind bands, brass bands and choirs), Arfi offers a wide range of educational actions aimed at all kind of addressees.
PRESS CUTS
'In Lyon, for 20 years now, a handful of extravagant jazz performers have shaken up the scales and the notes. You won’t believe your ears.'
Valérie Peronnet, Télérama, mai 1997
'What stems from this ebullient ensemble is clever, delightful and extremely musical. These French finally put some irony in jazz, when American performers are usually deprived of any.'
Franck Gerdes, Leipziger Volkszeitung, october 1998
'Colourful explosions, clever compositions, collective performing bliss, enthusiasm, La Marmite Infernale parties without restrain or flattery. This orchestra should overflow festivals, it should be a living example for many a jazz band.'
Bernard Aimé, Jazz Magazine, november 2001
'Arfi is at the height of its game since more than 25 years. A surprising longevity of ideas, of funniness, of love for music, of loyal friendship.'
Francis Marmande, Le Monde, april 2003
Regulars of concert-movies, the Arfi musicians know how to create an atmosphere in a few phrases, how to dream up favourable sceneries for stealthy loopholes, with a staging of aerial gravity.
Thierry Lepin, Jazzman, October 2004
