The Paris Jazz Festival was founded in 1994 by Olivier Bastardie and Franck Marchal. The inaugural festival was named À fleur de Jazz, which was a reference to its setting: the event took place in a botanical garden. It featured renowned international jazz musicians, with performances by Richard Bona, Lionel and Stéphane Belmondo, Brad Mehldau, Trilok Gurtu, and Didier Lockwood among others. The first À fleur de Jazz was a success, so the organizers decided to hold it annually in the very heart of Paris. The event received its current name in 1998.
As the festival grew and developed, its editorial policy changed. Originally, the festival featured international jazz artists traveling Europe on their summer tours. But when Pierrette Devineau and Sebastian Danchin of CC Production took over the event in 2009, the Paris Jazz Festival began to focus on promoting French jazz. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the festival doesn’t welcome international artists anymore. Its line-up is a balanced mix of French and international performers.
Over the years, the Paris Jazz Festival has featured performances by many jazz artists of international renown, including Diederik Wissels, Wasis Diop, Jan Garbarek, Christophe (Daniel Bevilacqua), Fabrice Moreau, Louis Sclavis, Youn Sun Nah, Yaron Herman, David Linx, Yves Rousseau, Omar Sosa, Jacques Gamblin, Gueorgui Kornazov, Gregory Porter, Stéphane Galland, Manu Katché, Marcus Wyatt, Snarky Puppy, Kyle Eastwood, Manu Dibango, Roberto Fonseca, and others.
The Paris Jazz Festival usually begins in mid-June and runs through late July. The concerts take place on several stages in the Parc floral de Patis, a public park and botanical garden located in the Bois de Vincennes in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. All concerts are free, but attendees have to pay a small fee to enter the park. Along with performances, the festival program includes workshops, exhibitions, and other events and activities.
Photo: parisjazzfestival.fr
