With a view to promoting cultural diversity, urban cultures and artistic exchange between South Africa, France and the African Continent, the French Institute of South Africa, the General Direction of the Alliances Françaises in South Africa, Lesotho, Botwswana and Swaziland, proudly present :

PARIS/JOBOURG – ALLER/RETOUR PARIS/JOBURG – BACK AND FORTH

Swinging in Southern Africa in June 2010

ON TOUR
> Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th June 2010 : Wits University (Johannesburg)
> Tuesday 8th June : Alliance Française of Pretoria
> Wednesday 9th June : Alliance Française of Cape Town
> Thursday 10th June : Alliance Française of Luanda
> Saturday 12th June : Knysna
> Friday 25th June : National Arts Festival, Grahamstown

For more information
Pauline Boitard @ Alliance Française of Johannesburg
culture.jhb@alliance.org.za
011 646 1169
Ben Blanpain Montrésor @ French Institute of South Africa
ben@ifas.org.za
011 836 0561

“Jazz is plural in essence – and this could be a paradoxical way of defining it – i.e. jazz is about a style which regenerates itself through the absorption of infinitely varied musical influences.” Lorraine Roubertie (Master’s dissertation in Musicology, University of Paris VIII, 2006).

The project Paris/Joburg - Aller/Retour is the result of several months of collaboration between French percussionist and composer Braka and South African bass player Carlo Mombelli. The idea behind the project is to have the same repertoire played at first by two different quartets, one in France and one in South Africa, and then to have both quartets fuse their musical style (representative of Valse Musette from Paris and fifties/sixties African Jazz from Johannesburg).
Both cities harbour antagonistic climates that can certainly rub off on the minds and the music of their inhabitants. And as such, the lyrical and melancholic triple time of Valse Musette is certainly opposed to the luminous quadruple time of South African Jazz.
Initially, both music styles function as dancing music. But where can popular themes lead to when they are led by musicians who have lapsed into jazz and improvisation ?
From the festive ambiance of the ballrooms of Joburg’s Sophiatown and Paris’ rue de Lappe to full orchestral improvisation, the project’s repertoire will be made of old and original pieces from both countries : three Parisian standard pieces and three original compositions by Braka for Paris, and three South African traditional pieces and three original compositions by Carlo Mombelli for Joburg.
In line with the double quartet of Ornette Coleman or Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, the project Paris/Joburg Aller-Retour is articulated around a back and forth principle of musical projects combining writing and improvisation with tradition and contemporaneousness.
While the project is an exchange between two cultures and two composers, it is also an encounter between avant-garde French and South African jazz personalities.