Not So Jazzy This Year/Water Signs

JAZZY OR NOT

It was in Nice, not in America, that the first jazz festival in the world was born! It was 1948 when this groundbreaking event was hosted at the Nice Opéra (a venue typically reserved for classical music), as well as the now-demolished Casino Municipal de Nice on Place Masséna, which provided its Belle Époque setting for the festival.

Several performances were broadcast live by French Radio, amplifying the festival’s impact. The event featured a stellar lineup, headlined by the legendary Louis Armstrong, along with other jazz greats like Claude Lutter, Stéphane Grappelli, and Django Reinhardt. The festival concluded with a lively, all-night jam session at the Negresco, following performances by Suzy Delair and Yves Montand.

This historic festival marked a significant moment for jazz, establishing a dedicated audience in France. Louis Armstrong’s immense talent and charisma captivated many who were new to the genre. Nice embraced jazz with a fervor—a love that, despite a 23-year hiatus, would be rekindled with passion. After a long break, jazz returned to Nice in 1971, with a revival held at the Théâtre de Verdure and Jardin Albert 1er. This comeback attracted a host of renowned artists to the Côte d’Azur, including Ella Fitzgerald, Pharoah Sanders, T-Bone Walker, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, and many more.

The history doesn’t end here at all. Now directly managed by the city, the Nice Jazz Festival takes place on the central Albert 1er garden, between the sea and Place Masséna. The festival’s mission is to revitalize and modernize with the goal of attracting the best in jazz and contemporary music.

This year, the festival was moved from its usual mid-July dates to August 20-23, 2024, due to the Tour de France finish in Nice as well as the Summer Olympics events that took place in the city. The city also took the chance to reinvent the entire festival with a fresh layout and a new focus. Instead of featuring established headliners performing their greatest hits, the emphasis will now be on emerging talent—the future jazz legends they believe you’ll be proud to say you saw first right here.

Over dinner the first night of the festival at the new Anantara Plaza Nice Hotel, with some of the most stunning views of the city, we could see the main stage and hear the performances coming from both venues, the Théâtre de Verdure as well as the music from the rooftop bar at the hotel. It was a bit confusing to our ears, but the views of the park and the festival were worth the audial bombardment.

View from the Anantara Plaza Hotel

I love to go to the festival every year, at least to some of the performances. But, they aren’t always so great! This year’s festival seemed busier than ever before—the crowds were overwhelming. Perhaps that’s because of the new dates—mid-August is the height of the vacation season—so Nice is up to its neck in tourists, anyway, compared to mid July when the season is just beginning.

I caught the tail end of Stella Cole’s performance, which got very good reviews. Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice and President of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis, accompanied by actor and comedian Gad Elmaleh, presented the 2024 edition of the Trophée Ferret created by sculptor Stéphane Cipre, and a testament to the prestigious jewelry house’s tradition as a patron of jazz. The trophy is awarded each year to an artist who is emblematic of the festival’s program.

Stella Cole receiving the Trophée Ferret award at Nice Jazz Fest 2024

She was followed by Cuban-born Alfredo Rodriguez, whose fingers on the piano keys were a blur considering the speed at which he hit the keys. I’ve never seen, nor heard, such an amazing performance on the keyboard. He was a child prodigy who studied classical piano at the prestigious Conservatorio Amadeo Roldan and the Instituto Superior de Arte, while playing popular music in his father’s orchestra at night. Here in Nice, he presented his new album, Coral Way.

I felt privileged to have caught his performance, and watched in awe as the French audience sat attentively without moving their bodies (like the rest of us are prone to do!) in spite of the intensity of the music and the Latin beat. This never ceases to amaze me how they just can’t seem to let themselves go! They are too, too well-behaved! Nonetheless, at the end, he had a large group of aficionados on the floor at the bottom of the stage dancing like crazy! Hats off to him!

Thursday evening I wandered into the Théâtre de Verdure to hear Theo Croker, whose music was literally torture to my ears. I couldn’t wait to leave even after a few minutes, so I did and wandered over to the main stage to hear Sampha. He started about 20 minutes late, so the crowd had grown in anticipation. His sound was also torture to my ears and the speakers made it loud and unbearable, so I headed toward Place Masséna, the fastest way out of the pain. This must be some of that “emerging talent—the future jazz legends they believe you’ll be proud to say you saw first right there.” I wasn’t proud at all! I know the French enjoy the “avant-garde” and all that which is “intellectual,” but these were not my idea of “music.”

Sampha, onstage at Nice Jazz Fest 2024

When I arrived near the signs for “porte,” each with its own number, after worming my way through the crowd, I was told I had to go out another way. That took me past the speakers blasting and into a mob scene. Again, torture. When I finally reached the “other way,” I was told I couldn’t exit there either and got sent to another “porte.” It started to become another kind of torture only to discover there was only one way in and one way out of the entire venue. I could almost see my apartment from one of the exits, and even pleading with the guard didn’t help, so instead had to circle the entire garden to go back to the main entry in order to leave. What were the organizers thinking? I didn’t venture back.

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WATER ANGELS AND DEMONS

The beach is where I wanted to be, especially after a disastrous week in Sicily where the beaches were either fenced in or bumper-to-bumper with sunbathers and simply not up to our beach standards. The beach in Nice was absolute heaven—crowded but not at all too badly; the water was warm and calm, clear and clean; the “galets” sand-free and easy to manage and it wasn’t too hot, with a nice breeze. It was perfect. As I floated on the water using a sling on a noodle, I wondered why we had even bothered to entrust our beach vacation to Sicily, when the beach at home is as perfect as it gets.

Towards the end of our time on the beach, a Swedish woman came over to us holding a small blue and white striped folding chair. She had noticed that I had a chair, but my friend, Surinder, was on a mat, and that perhaps we would want the chair. She explained that she was leaving Nice and couldn’t take it on the plane and might as well give it to someone. Surinder gladly accepted it—like a gift from God. When we stood up to pack up and leave, we realized that the chair matched everything else she had with her, all of which were the same blue and white stripes. It was “beshert,” or meant to be.

This year, “water” has given me both great pleasure, but also lots of grief. I’ve either had too much water or not enough. “Chaudières” (gas water heaters) and hot water tanks have been the bane of my existence, either leaking or breaking down or simply not functioning. Even this past week, a leak was discovered coming from pipes in my Paris apartment that is completely empty with where no one is living! It’s been an endless stream of water issues all year long and they don’t seem to want to stop. My daughter insisted I see a psychic to understand what’s causing the universe to send these messages, so I agreed and have a session booked for later this week with a woman psychic she highly recommended. I can’t wait to hear what she has to say…so stay tuned for what the spirits have to say in next week’s Nouvellettre®!

A la prochaine…