There are a number of eye-catching headline concerts announced for the 62nd Jazz à Juan that runs from 10 to 21 July in Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, France. Numerous big names jazz and world artists appearing include the Brad Mehldau Trio, Branford Marsalis Quartet, Youn Sun Nah, Melody Gardot, Lizz Wright and crossover classical pianist Ludovico Einaudi, and a concert with French Comorian singer Imany, Angélique Kidjo and Fatoumata Diawara. Others who will be performing on the historic Pinède Gould stage will be recent double Grammy winner Samara Joy, fellow Grammy winner Jacob Collier, festival favourites Nile Rodgers and Chic, leading European Afro-jazz fusion band Sixun making their first stage appearance for 13 years, and guitar star Joe Bonamassa.

Two of the main concerts are free, one being the part church service-part Gospel concert that traditionally ends the festival and the other being the 14 July French National Day concert, which is traditionally topped off with fireworks. Also free are the Jammin' Juan Summer Sessions taking place before the night's main concert and featuring a carefully selected line-up of emerging European jazz groups, several of which will have earned their place by impressing at the previous November's Jammin' Juan Jazz market place. The festival programme also includes Marching Bands in the streets, a late night Festival jazz club and, new this year a nightly After Party on the beach and morning jazz down the road at Antibes' media centre, plus a jazz themed exhibition and guided jazz walks.

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from www.jazzwise.com

SAMARA JOY

© Meredith Truax

The new rising star of vocal jazz and winner of two GRAMMYS® in 2023 (“Best New Artist” and “Best Jazz Vocal Album” for Linger Awhile), Samara Joy makes no secret of her sources of influence.
Among those whom she herself cites, we find Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter. Legendary names who have performed many times in the Gould pine grove. This concert will be the young artist’s opportunity to perform on a stage steeped in Jazz history and in the aura of those artists who so greatly inspired her.
In her first album, Samara brings jazz standards up to date with a dash of modernity and that is what contributes to the strength of this artist: she continues the tradition of great jazz singers, with respect and humility while bringing her own personal touch and making her own way, also illustrating the timelessness of her predecessors.

JOE BONAMASSA

© DR

Wearing a suit and sunglasses with, his hair sleeked back and of course his electric guitar slung over his shoulder, Joe Bonamassa is ready to set the stage ablaze.

Nominated 3 times for the Grammys® and having been at number 1 of the Blues album Billboard 25 times to date, this famous Blues-Rock guitarist and singer-songwriter will be calling at Juan this summer to give the Gould pine grove a buzz. Passing from powerful bluesy riffs to softer sequences, sometimes within the same song, it is with much mastery and energy that this virtuoso shares his music with his audience.
Since the start of his career with B.B. King at the age of 12, Joe has never ceased performing with the greatest (Eric Clapton, Slash…), placing his name among the giants of Blues Rock. He has performed on prestigious stages such as the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Vienna State Opera. The Gould pine grove, which itself welcomed B.B. King from 1994 to 2011, will be added to his list for our greatest pleasure, where he will perform hits from his latest album Time Clocks and from the vast repertoire of his classics.

DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER & THE AMAZING KEYSTONE BIG BAND

© Joe Martinez

A co-production with the festivals Jazz sous les Pommiers, Jazz en Comminges and Jazz à Vienne.

Her first appearance in 1989 when she replaced the great Sarah Vaughan at the last minute was a true case of love at first sight. Juan at once fell in love with this attractive star, universal incarnation of the Jazz Singer, scat expert, so at ease on stage, sensual, full of nuance and expression…
Throughout her career, Dee Dee Bridgewater has never ceased to build bridges between musical genres. All through the 70s she performed alongside great names in jazz such as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy Gillespie and became one of the main soloists of Mel Lewis’s and Thad Jones’s big band. In the 80s, she tried her hand at pop music then moved to Paris where she refocussed her energy on jazz.
This time Dee Dee is back with the project “We Love Ella“, a tribute to the legendary Ella Fitzgerald. The jazz big band The Amazing Keystone Big Band, winner of the 2018 “Victoires du jazz” award in the category “Band of the year”, will be performing by her side to reinvent Ella’s greatest hits, in the Gould pine grove where Ella conversed with the crickets nearly 60 years earlier. This concert is a special creation.

LIZZ WRIGHT

© Jesse Kitt

The celebrated singer Lizz Wright is a guardian of American music, bringing brilliant and vibrant colour to extraordinary original works and to compositions by some of the greatest singer-songwriters of our time. With the release of five albums hailed by the critics, Lizz Wright has established herself as one of the most venerable popular singers of her generation. From her first album Salt, released by Verve, up to her latest album Grace, released by Concord Records, Lizz Wright is living a life filled with beautiful possibilities centred on the power of song.
Thanks to her inimitable voice, Lizz Wright sings while reflecting the cultural make-up of America. Her music accepts the beauty of reality and a collective experience of belonging. For the listener,  lizz Wright’s songs embody a tradition which allows us to feel always at home, no matter where we may be physically or emotionally.
It is by way of her personal convictions and her aspirations to a return to a balanced life that Lizz Wright has left the fast-paced hustle and bustle of cities to refocus on the values which she cherishes. In doing so, she sets to music the relationship between mankind and nature, a relationship age-old yet never forgotten.

BRAD MEHLDAU TRIO

©Michael Wilson

The jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, winner of a GRAMMY AWARD®, has made numerous recordings and given many performances since the start of the 1990s. Mehldau’s most regular production over the years has been as a trio formation. Right from the start on his earliest albums, Brad mixes original compositions with arrangements from pop or rock songs, which demonstrates the variety of his influences.
His latest solo album Your mother should know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles released in 2023 shows just how much of an impact this band had on the artist’s musical universe. He also composes albums known as « concept albums », in particular Elegiac Cycle and Places. These albums are composed exclusively of original material and musical themes gliding over the compositions, strengthening the link between the songs and underlining a continuity from the first to the last song of the album.
Brad has also composed film scores, such as those of Space Cowboys directed by Clint Eastwood in 2000 and Happily ever after by Yvan Attal in 2004.
It is as a trio that the pianist will perform on stage in the Gould pine grove this summer, to share his repertoire and his musical influences with the Jazz à Juan audience.

NILE RODGERS & CHIC

© Jill Fumanovski

Among music legends, Nile Rodgers is truly exceptional. He amplifies his legacy as a multiple Grammy®-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist by constantly traversing new musical terrain and successfully expanding the boundaries of popular music.
As the co-founder of CHIC, Rodgers pioneered a musical language that generated chart-topping hits like Le Freak, (the biggest selling single in the history of Atlantic Records) and sparked the advent of hip-hop with Good Times. Nile transcends all styles of music across every generation with a body of work that’s garnered him inductions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame of which he is the Chairman.
Nile’s work in the CHIC Organization and his productions for artists like David Bowie, Diana Ross, and Madonna have sold over 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide while his trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Avicii, Keith Urban, Disclosure, Sam Smith and Lady Gaga reflect the vanguard of contemporary music.

ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO

© Fabrice Mabillot

Angélique Kidjo, five-time GRAMMY® award-winner, is today one of the greatest artists in international music. She received the prestigious Crystal Award 2015 from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and the Ambassador of Conscience Award 2016 from Amnesty International.
A real performer, her striking voice, her stage presence and her multicultural influences have earned her the respect of her peers and carried her beyond the borders of Africa. Angélique Kidjo has managed to combine the traditional African sounds of her childhood in Benin with American sounds of R’n’B, funk and jazz, as well as European and Latin American influences.
Angélique has performed symphony concerts with several prestigious international orchestras including the Bruckner Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Philharmonie de Paris. In parallel with these symphonic concerts, Angélique continues to give those concerts which have led to her world fame, at the side of her four musicians.

MELODY GARDOT

©DR

An American singer, songwriter and composer, Melody Gardot appeared on the jazz scene more than ten years ago. She has already performed many sold-out concerts at l’Olympia in Paris and several successful tours in France, which have made her a must-see artist. Revealed in 2008 with Worrisome Heart and established as a jazz diva in 2009 with the album My One and Only Thrill, Melody likes to blend folk, blues, bossa nova, R’n’B and pop with her vocal jazz.
In 2020, she revealed Sunset in the Blue, her fifth studio album. In this work, which rapidly became a platinum disc, Melody Gardot collaborated with the dream team from My One and Only Thrill, i.e. producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock), arranger and composer Vince Mendoza (Björk, Robbie Williams, Elvis Costello) and legendary engineer Al Schmitt (Frank Sinatra, Joao Gilberto, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney).
Her latest album, Entre Eux Deux, was released in 2022. Having performed with many prestigious names such as Ibrahim Maalouf, Antonio Zambujo and Sting on other occasions, this album was a fully collaborative work recorded with Brazilian pianist Philippe Powell.