guitarist Marc Ribot and singer Leyla McCalla among the headliners of the flagship Val-de-Marne festival

The 33rd edition of the Ile-de-France festival of contemporary music takes place from Friday January 19 to Saturday February 10. With a cosmopolitan program traveling from New Orleans to India, from Japan to Ethiopia, and four personalities of French female jazz: Joëlle Léandre, Sylvaine Hélary, Ève Risser and the young Sélène Saint-Aimé.

For its 33rd edition, the Sons d’hiver festival, based in Val-de-Marne in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, offers a beautiful musical journey through a rich, exotic and tempting program. Many regions of the world, varied aesthetics, legends and sizes are on display. Some concerts are sold out, but places occasionally become available. Two evenings will take place in Paris intramural.

The American Marc Ribot, guitar hero and angry citizen, is back at Sons d’hiver with two dates, in different formations, including a new trio, to celebrate his 70th birthday (he will celebrate them precisely on May 21), January 23 in Fontenay-sous-Bois and January 24 in Perreux-sur-Marne.

Other major international artists are on the bill, such as Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu (January 21, Paris), American trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (February 7, Paris) and Ethiopian percussionist and vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke (February 9, Villejuif) , pope of Ethio-jazz who has just celebrated his 80th birthday.

French jazz: a beautiful poster

French jazz is not left out, with four musicians representing different generations and aesthetics: pianist Ève Risser and her Red Desert Orchestra for the opening night (January 19, Kremlin-Bicêtre) in a meeting with the Malian group Kaladjula Band by Naïny Diabaté. Note that in the first part, the formidable guitarist of Senegalese origin Hervé Samb participates in a creation within a new quartet, Teriya.

Another creation, that of double bassist Joëlle Léandre who will host an avant-garde New York septet composed of strings, two blowers and a guitar (January 25, Vincennes). At the head of her Incandescent Orchestra, flautist Sylvaine Hélary presents her program Rare Birds in which she set poems by Emily Dickinson and PJ Harvey to music (February 3, Vitry-sur-Seine). Finally, the young double bassist and singer Sélène Saint-Aimé, Révélation 2021 at the Victoires du jazz, presents a brand new project, New Orleans Creole Songs, fruit of a three-month residency in Louisiana (February 6, Nogent-sur-Marne).

New Orleans is also on the program for the Impérial Quartet, a French group which will transform, in the second part, into Impérial Orphéon for a Creole ball (January 27, Mandres-les-Roses). Furthermore, a Japanese evening will be hosted by percussionist Yuko Oshima and the Otomo Yoshihide New Jazz Quintet (January 26, Arcueil).

Another ball promises to be effervescent, that of the Papanosh collective and its distinguished guests, including the illustrious Gascons André Minvielle and Bernard Lubat, the singer Linda Oláh and the rapper, singer and beatboxer Napoleon Maddox (February 2, Vitry-sur -Seine). The jazz programming, decidedly of high standard, also includes the quartet Gentle Ghosts hosted by pianist Benoît Delbecq, in which American saxophonist Mark Turner appears (February 7, Paris). And an IRCAM evening combining concert and screening of a full-length documentary (February 1, Alfortville).

The closing of the festival, traditionally organized in Créteil, prefecture of Val-de-Marne, promises to be very beautiful, with two American voices of 21st century folk and blues. Leyla McCalla and Rhiannon Giddens, both singers and multi-instrumentalists, will take turns on February 10 on the stage of the Maison des Arts.

Winter Sounds Festival, from January 19 to February 10, 2024, in Val-de-Marne and Paris (two evenings).
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