by Colin May
August 02, 2025
Colin May reports on seven of the ten performances in the Jammin' Summer Sessions series of free events at the 2025 Jazz A Juan Festival.
Photograph of the Obradovic-Tixier Duo by Vincemt Bartoli sourced from the Jazz A Juan website; https://jazzajuan.com/
Jammin’ Summer Sessions
Jazz A Juan 2025
Petite Pinéde, Juan-Les-Pins
10-20 July 2025
The Jammin’ Summer Sessions has become a big success and an essential part of Juan-Les-Pins’ jazz summer.. It’s a series of free hour long concerts that end 15 minutes before the start of that night’s main Jazz A Juan programme.
The concerts are given by a different band each evening on an open air stage with seats set out in front, very close to the main Jazz A Juan arena. It’s a relatively new initiative that’s an extension of the annual Jammin’ Juan Jazz Market place that takes place in late autumn. The Summer Session is proving very successful both in gaining an audience probably some of whom are hearing jazz live for the first time, and in giving more seasoned jazz fans the opportunity to discover groups they might not have heard of.
The fact that the Jammin’ Summer Sessions now has been taken under the Jazz A Juan brand seems a recognition not only of their success as jazz outreach but also of the high standard of the music The level certainly has increased significantly since I first went.
This year I managed to get to seven of the ten concerts. The overall standard was high and so were audience numbers, sometimes it was hard to find a seat. My guesstimate is that the audience size varied between 140 to perhaps 200 people, despite most being exposed to the still strong evening sun. The audience was very attentive to the music at each session at which I was present, and showed their support of the musicians during and at the end off their set and after with the merch table then being quite busy.
THE ARTISTS;
NDIAZ, 10/07/2025
Breton band ‘NDIAZ’ offer a contemporary take on Breton music. Their accordion player played an acoustic instrument and an electric accordion (electravox) at times simultaneously and their saxophone player used effects. Upbeat up-to-the- minute versions of Breton dance music were part of their repertoire but so was stripped back acoustic numbers. I spotted a set of Breton pipes lying under a blanket waiting to be played but before they were I had to leave for the main arena. They were one of the less jazzy groups but one that made happy sounding music that would be a perfect for a festival.
SYLVAIN RIFFLET, 11/07/2025
Saxophonist and clarinettist SYLVAIN RIFFLET’S current project is to collaborate with a drummer and a piano/synth player who have backgrounds in indie pop. All the numbers were comparatively short perhaps reflecting the pop background.
Some of the shortish pieces still managed to build and resolve tension between sax and keys, and sax and drums. Rifflet played clarinet as much as sax and used it to good effect in a chamber jazz piece . The group can get abstract with synth bloops and beeps, but was a drum solo that ignited the crowd.
OBRADOVIC-TIXIER DUO 13/07/2025
When it comes to the OBRADOVIC-TIXIER DUO, I have to declare that I am a fan. This is because in 2019 I heard them play a late night session at that year’s Jammin’ Jean that completely blew me away, and that I still consider to be one of the most exciting and intense hours of music in any genre that I’ve been lucky to hear live.
The award winning duo’s most recent album of story telling ‘Jiggled Jugglar’ is their sixth. Their first album ’ The Boiling Stories of a Smoking Kettle’ had a UK release and a four star review in Jazzwise : https://www.jazzwise.com/review/obradovic-tixier-duo-the- boiling-stories-of-a-smoking-kettle, but they may not have had a UK distribution deal since.
Both Croatian Lada Obradovic (drums, hand percussion, voice and effects) and David Tixier (piano and synth) compose. Both are individually virtuosic, yet playing as a duo seems to create an additional level of excellence. When I had seen them at that late night session they were seated very close together. This time they were as far apart as was possible without falling of the edge of the Petite Pinéde stage. Chance perhaps, but it could have been deliberate sound design to allow the individual contribution of each to emerge and then come together in the space between.
Their powerful playing, of which there was plenty can blow you away, but so can the beautiful fragility of some of their music. Obradovic’s wordless vocal gave a delicate and ethereal accent to one number, and her playing of prayer bowl introduced a contemplative element into another.
This was a more nuanced set than I recall the set In 2019 to have been ( though my memory may not be accurate). However it was riveting, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so as they got a standing ovation and a lot of activity around their merch table. .suggesting that this superb duo had just got themselves a bunch of new fans.
CHRISTOPHE IMBS – SOFT POWER, 14/07/2025
Pianist CHRISTOPHE IMBS and his band with the excellent Baptiste Stanek on tenor was one of my picks from the most recent Jammin’Juan.
He gave an impromptu display of his improvising chops when his set was interrupted by someone emptying glass detritus into a recycling bin. Imbs immediately picked up on the sound and from it spun a four or five minute improvisation, with Stanek’s tenor joining in towards the end.
Some of Imbs’ compositions have quirky titles:‘Play More Sport Daddy’, ‘My English Accent is Perfect’ and ’ Magical Kitsch’ the tune of which Imbs and Stanek deconstruct. But their music is less quirky in a good sense than the titles might suggest. Imbs and Stanek do have power to burn in their kit bag which hey can and do use often combining this with a strong sense of melody. But Imbs and his group can also be lyrical and delicate, and they play a lullaby-like tune with such fragility that you fear it might disintegrate into nothingness at any moment.
NO(W) BEAUTY, 15/07/2025
The Franco-American quartet NO(W) BEAUTY is a collective, all of whom contribute compositions, They were another group I heard at last year’s Jammin’ Market Place. Their measured multi layered music often unfolds quite slowly but rather hypnotically with Hermon Mehari’s breathy semi static trumpet that’s possibly influenced by Ambrose Akinmusire, anchoring several of the numbers. In one number they are almost in free jazz territory. What is different from last November is their playing is slightly more edgy and energetic than then, and these small changes do make a significant positive difference.
CÉDRIC HANRIOT, 17/07/2025
Pianist and synth player, composer and producer CÉDRIC HANRIOT worked on Dianne Reeves Grammy winning album ‘Beautiful Life’. Of his latest album, “A Luminous World – Time is Color Vol.2” he has said ,“The main theme of the album is spirituality and quantum physics – two sides of the same coin.”
(https://jazzviews.net/cedric-hanriot-take-five-qa/).
While I failed to pick up on how these themes are expressed in the music, I was impressed by the dynamism of his piano playing and his phrasing. His bassist and drummer were equally impressive.
Hanriot has spoken also about wanting the voice to be a focus in his current music, and he brought with him singer and rapper Nunny though she is not one of the voices on the recent album. She had a very appealing voice both when singing and rapping and was a very good match for Hanriot, being equally dynamic.
The sometimes edgy set had elements of mainstream jazz, acid jazz, funk and electronica but when Nunny rapped the predominant vibe was up-to-the-minute urban music. I had no idea what the words meant, my French was not up to the mark, but whatever she and Hanriot and his side men had going came over ultimately as uplifting and joyful.
SIMON DENIZART, 20/07/2025
Originally from near Paris but now a Canadian citizen, SIMON DENIZART was another pianist who impressed not only with his playing but also with his composing. He had the ‘usual’ piano trio set up with drums and bass but with a plus one, a percussionist playing congas. The conga player added additional textures to Denizart’s multi layered compositions.
Multi-layered compositions do risk becoming impenetrable and alienating the listener(s). However Denizart’s music is also very melodic and this gives the listener a way in to his more complex music. His Summer Session audience was definitely engaged, and at the end gave him and his group a warm round of applause.
SUMMARY
I enjoyed all my visits to the Jammin’ Summer Session stage. The atmosphere was excellent with the groups and the audience feeding off each other.
Whisper it, but some of the best jazz at Jazz A Juan was played on the Petite Pinéde stage. My favourite was Obradovic - Tixier but I would be very happy to have the opportunity to hear any of the acts again, as well.
Congratulations to organiser Maryline Bailly for another very successful Jammin’ Summer Session.
The Jammin’ Summer Session programme can be found here:
https://jazzajuan.com/en/around-the-festival/
Abramovich-Texier Duo and Cédric Hanriot are both playing at this year’s Jammin’ Juan Jazz Market Place 29-31 October, Palais des Congress, Juan Les Pins, France. The programme can be viewed at:
https://jammin.jazzajuan.com/en/
COLIN MAY