Five years to the day after his last concert at the Sainte-Croix Cathedral in Orleans, Laurent Voulzy returns to this symbolic place for two concert events on Thursday and Friday, May 13, 2022. Performances as part of its tour of churches and cathedrals. He welcomes us today to talk about his reunion with the Orléanais monument and its public. A loyal audience that responds present.
It is a pleasure for me to return here to Orleans in this cathedral. At times it was even very moving
He had to adapt to this type of place loaded with symbols, as well as to the particular acoustics. This proposal for a tour of the “Clochers” was however obvious. Laurent Voulzy did not hesitate. “After making the album Lys and Love, I sang in three places that had marked me a lot: The Saint-Denis basilica in Paris, the Saint-Eustache church in Paris and a church in London, near Westminster. I had been quite marked by these places and I had found that there was a particular listening. When I was offered, years later, to tour cathedrals and large churches, basilicas, collegiates, I did not hesitate for a second..”
A deeply inhabited concert
During the concert there is a special atmosphere. Laurent Voulzy often seems inhabited. This takes on an additional dimension when he interprets Jeanne entrusts the singer. “MEven though I hear them on the radio when I’m driving, there are two songs that have a special effect on me. They always have a funny effect on me, it’s Jeanne and Paradoxale System. These songs, I can’t tell you why, they have a very special effect on me, as if it wasn’t me who had composed them. So already that Jeanne has a special effect on me, imagine in the cathedral, that takes on yet another dimension.”
– Nathanael Brunie
Laurent Voulzy is not alone on stage, he is accompanied by Michel Amsellem and Naomi Greene
Michel is a truly exceptional musician whom I have known for quite a few years now and with whom I have toured. He is great, both classically and pop musically trained. And then Naomi Green, Franco-American, whom we really discovered while going to a club in Paris one evening. You had to go down floors and floors. We were really dazzled when we saw him with Michel.
Souvenirs from Orleans
Laurent Voulzy reminds us that he did his military service here in Orleans in 1968.”At first it was not easy. I was playing in a club with a rock band in the south of France. They came to fetch me saying: Mr. Voulzy, you were summoned to the hussar regiment in Orleans. You were twelve days late. We pick you up because everyone is waiting for you.”
He was therefore obliged to leave the place to return to Orleans. “I arrived late at the barracks and was asked what instrument I played. People quickly saw that I was a musician. They put me on the bass drum and I was part of the marching band,so I paraded during the Joan of Arc celebrations. And then afterwards, I played. Towards the end of my service, I was asked to take charge of the barracks orchestra. For example, I played for the colonel’s change ball. That allowed me to have very flexible hours. I could not be at evening roll call, I could rehearse and in addition on Saturdays and sometimes during the week, I went out in the evening by the stables, and I went to play in a club a few kilometers away.”
Joan’s show
As for the Jeanne show, devoted entirely to the Maid of Orleans, it should soon see the light of day.
For me it’s a first-rate project, which keeps me busy outside of the tour we’re doing there. I was even offered to do a residency in Orléans, that is to say to do all the rehearsals for this show there. I think it would be a great idea, I’m all for it.
Laurent Voulzy at Orleans Cathedral for two days, as part of his tour of churches and cathedrals. See you this Friday, May 13 at 8:30 p.m. for her second date.