The Jazz à l’Etage Festival is turning 10!

The Jazz à l’Etage Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary in Saint-Malo and the Rennes metropolitan area from February 9th to March 9th. Its ambitious program combines young talent and well-known musicians.

The BNP Parisbas Foundation is pleased to renew its commitment to this major cultural event in Brittany (France), which promotes jazz in all its diversity. There are close ties between the festival and BNP Paribas. Since 2012, the Group supports Jazz à l’Etage through the BNP Paribas-Banque de Bretagne endowment fund as part of the BNP Paribas Foundation’s philanthropic activities.  

Gathering world-famous musicians, established French artists and young French talents participating in the Fresh Sound Jazz à l’Etage, offers a musical panorama of the contemporary scene featuring over 80 artists. Nearly 15 different venues (concert halls, clubs and media libraries) host around 30 events, from sometimes-free concerts to Jazz Talk, exhibitions and club nights. Musicians and the public meet face-to-face at Jazz à l’Etage, which promotes culture everywhere and for everybody.

Jazz à l’Etage starts with one of Japan’s finest pianists, Yataka Shiina, whose quintet showcases two saxophone virtuosi: Pierrick Pédron, an alto sax whiz and talented composer supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation since 2017, and Max Ionanta, a stunning Italian tenor saxophonist. 

Accompanied by Thomas Bramerie on bass and Junji Hirose on drums, top French and international jazz musicians will meet, much to our ears’ delight. 

The bold virtuoso pianist Paul Lay, also supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation since 2017, will be the festival’s common thread this year. He will present his Deep Rivers project in Saint-Malo. Accompanied by Isabelle Sörling’s ethereal voice and Simon Tailleu’s subtle bass playing, Paul Lay will immerse us into early 20th-century American songs. 

In Rennes, he will perform Billie Holiday, Passionately… accompanied by Olivier Garouste’s pictures of Lady Day. Last but not least, he will introduce Rennes to his homage to Louis Armstrong, Thanks a Million, alongside trumpeter Eric Le Lann. Compositions and the great master’s repertoire will be on the bill. 

The program includes cultural events, such as:

• a discussion with Gaël Horellou about electronic jazz and with Raphaël Imbert on the paradoxes that make jazz history so rich;
• exhibitions, including Maxence Ravelomantsoa’s “Blues”; 
• Mathias Levy’s string trio, where a violinist, guitarist and bassist will pay tribute to Grappelli; 
• works by drummer Fabrice Moreau; 
• club nights combining jazz and soul in the heavenly voice of Indra Rios-Moore and showcasing exciting saxophonist Thomas de Pourquery‘s Supersonic project; 
• a jazz-funk concert by young guitarist Taha El Hmidi, funk-electro-rock with Nicolas Gardel and the Headbangers; 
• and Etienne Jaumet’s fresh take on great standards with electronic instruments and saxophones.

“[This edition] belongs to explorers and seekers of sound of all kinds, artists creating the jazz of today and tomorrow,” say the festival’s organizers.

They will invite young French pianist Mickaël Vigneron, who was awarded for young talent. It will end with a concert by its sponsor, the famous bassist Avishai Cohen, who is the face of the festival’s 10th edition.