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Category: Music
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Jazz on the Côte d’Azur
Jazz on the Côte d’Azur – When Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie conquered France.
The Côte d’Azur, a place of sophisticated elegance in the 1950s and 1960s, was not only a meeting place for artists, writers, and movie stars, but also the stage for a musical conquest that came from across the Atlantic: jazz. Led by personalities such as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie, the French Riviera was transformed into a vibrant center of African-American music that set new standards – both musically and culturally.
France’s fascination with jazz
France had a special relationship with jazz from early on. Since the 1920s, when African American musicians such as Sidney Bechet performed in Paris, the country was considered a cosmopolitan refuge. In the post-war years, this fascination intensified: France not only offered artists from the US opportunities to perform, but also social recognition that was often denied them in their homeland due to racial segregation and discrimination.
On the Côte d’Azur, where prosperity, tourism, and art came together in a glamorous mix, jazz became part of a new cultural identity.
The Antibes-Juan-les-Pins Festival
A key moment in this era was the founding of the Jazz à Juan festival in 1960 in the seaside resort of Juan-les-Pins. Surrounded by pine trees and just a stone’s throw from the sea, the festival featured performances by greats such as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Davis’ performances on the Côte d’Azur, such as his legendary concert in 1963, are still considered milestones in European jazz history. His coolness and his playing, which oscillated between restraint and explosive power, found an audience in the south of France that enthusiastically embraced what had often still polarized opinion in the USA.
Duke Ellington, on the other hand, brought the elegance of the big band sound to the Riviera. His concerts combined the splendor of swing with an experimental search for new forms of expression. Ellington knew how to present jazz as “serious music” without losing its danceability – an attitude that was very well received in France.
Jazz as cultural diplomacy
Dizzy Gillespie, with his unmistakable trumpet and his role as the father of bebop, also left his mark on the scene. His blend of virtuosity and humor, technical skill and Latin American rhythms made him a favorite with audiences. During the Cold War, he contributed to US cultural diplomacy as a “jazz ambassador” – but in France, he was more than a political emissary: he was a musician who crossed borders and conveyed a zest for life.
The Côte d’Azur as a stage for freedom
The performances of Davis, Ellington, and Gillespie on the Côte d’Azur were more than just concerts. They symbolized the cultural exchange between America and Europe, between black musical tradition and white audiences, between avant-garde and sophisticated lifestyle. Jazz on the Riviera meant sun, sea, and improvised music—a symbiosis of freedom and elegance.
For many musicians, the Côte d’Azur was not only a stage, but also a place of relaxation and inspiration. Here they met European colleagues and had the opportunity to experiment outside the narrow categories of the US music market.
Conclusion
When Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie conquered France, they turned the Côte d’Azur into a sounding board for jazz that resonated far beyond the region. Their concerts combined artistic innovation with social significance and helped jazz find a new home in Europe.
The Côte d’Azur thus became not only a setting for glamorous living, but also a symbol of the international language of jazz—a music that embodies freedom, diversity, and passion.
Jazz on the Coté d’Azur -
Thomas Mann on Wagner, Nietzsche and Freud
Thomas Mann on Wagner, Nietzsche, and Freud – Germanness as reflected in modernity
When Thomas Mann speaks, people listen – not only because of the elegance of his language, but also because of his sharp insight into German culture. In his lecture on Richard Wagner on February 10, 1933, he ventured an interpretation that removed the composer from the sphere of nationalistic veneration and placed him in the vicinity of another authority that was just beginning to take effect: Sigmund Freud’s new ideas.
Thomas Mann portrays Richard Wagner as an artist of a broken modernity, as a figure who does not rest in sublimity but is marked by inner conflicts. The excess, the pathos, the ecstatic exaggeration of his music appear to Mann as symptoms of a psychological struggle – an expression of the unconscious that Freud had made visible for the first time.
In this interpretation, Wagner’s “Germanness” is not understood as a proud, flawless force, but as a spiritual fabric of greatness and illness, of creative vision and corrosive self-analysis. For Mann, Wagner is not a national saint, but the first great representative of a modern, self-questioning Germany.
But Thomas Mann did not stop at psychoanalytic interpretation. He drew further parallels – to Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosopher who was initially ardently devoted to the “Master of Bayreuth” before turning away from him in a radical break. For Mann, this relationship was particularly revealing: Nietzsche recognized in Wagner’s intoxication, demonism, and excess the danger of exaggeration that could tip over into pathology.
In Nice, where Mann lived for a time, he sensed the same tension between illness and creation that Nietzsche had experienced so vividly in the south. Nice, with its light and its vastness, became a contrasting image for both of them—a place of recovery and clarity, but also of painful self-observation. For Mann, Wagner embodied the abysmal German, while Nietzsche represented the critical, clarifying authority that rejected this legacy and at the same time transformed it creatively.
But Thomas Mann himself was always reflected in this constellation. Like Wagner, he saw himself as an artist who drew inspiration from inner turmoil. The “bourgeois solidity” he embodied outwardly only partially concealed the abysses and ambivalences that nourished his work. From Nietzsche, he adopted the role of the self-analyst who recognizes weakness, critically penetrates it, and thereby overcomes it.
In Nice, in the light of the Côte d’Azur, this self-interpretation became particularly clear to Mann. The south made him realize that Germanness was not only fate, but also a task: to reflect on it critically, to name its dangers, and to transform it from within. Wagner, Nietzsche, and Freud were not mere points of reference for him, but reflections of his own existence.
This lecture on Wagner thus goes far beyond music. It proves to be a key text on Thomas Mann’s journey from defender of the “German essence” in Reflections of an Unpolitical Man to sharp critic who opposed National Socialism in exile. What began in Nice in reflections on Wagner and Nietzsche found its conclusion in a clear rejection of self-destructive Germanness.
Thomas Mann’s interpretation of Wagner is a document of intellectual self-discovery: the linking of music, philosophy, and psychoanalysis into a triad of modernity—and at the same time the confession of a poet who recognized his own destiny in the mirror of Wagner and Nietzsche.
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Moving Gelatine Plates: The World of Genius Hans
The World of Genius Hans is the second studio album by French band Moving Gelatine Plates, founded in 1968 by guitarist Gérard Bertram and bassist Didier Thibault.
The World of Genius Hans has one of the most striking covers in rock history. The cover features a pig (or is it a cow?) dressed in a pilot’s jacket, smoking a cigar, with parsley in its nostrils and ears. The unusual cover aptly reflects the intriguing nature of this album.
The World of Genius Hans’s jazzy avant-garde sound is somewhat reminiscent of early Soft Machine, Supersister and Frank Zappa, but the end result is entirely unique. The music of The World of Genius Hans is quite complex in places, but it is made accessible by a certain humour and warmth typical of the Canterbury scene, yet difficult to describe.
The best track on the album is the 14-minute title track, which features excellent thematic development and even hints of symphonic prog at times. However, the band remembers to add irregularly regular twists and turns and silliness to the mix, so that it doesn’t get confused with, say, Yes or Genesis.
The weakness of the album is bassist Didier Thibault’s vocals, which are not particularly impressive. Thibault’s voice is high-pitched and thin. Fortunately, the vocals play a relatively minor role on the album, and a pleasing variety of wind instruments, such as the bassoon, trombone and saxophones, are given more space.
The World of Genius is not a complete success, but it is highly recommended for listeners who are interested in a slightly more avant-garde take on Canterbury prog.
Best tracks: ”The World of Genius Hans”
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Gentle Giant: Three Friends
Three Friends is Gentle Giant’s third album and the band’s first concept album. The theme of the album is three school friends whogrew up and went into different career paths. One became a businessman, another a labourer and the third an artist. The concept is loose, but it does provide some kind of framework for songs that work perfectly on their own.
Musically, Three Friends is not quite as eclectic and experimental as its predecessor, Acquiring The Taste. On average, the album is a little more rock-oriented and less ambiguous. The arrangements are more straightforward and less rich in instrumentation than before. Of course, even the music on Three Friends is miles away from average rock in terms of complexity.
With the exception of the drummer, the band’s line-up remained the same as before. New drummer Malcolm Mortimore does a decent job on the album, but he is nowhere near as interesting and creative a player as his predecessor Martin Smith. Smith was apparently let go mainly because he didn’t get along with the band’s unofficial leader, Phil Shulman (saxophones, vocals). Mortimer’s time with the band was short-lived, as he was injured in a motorcycle accident shortly after the completion of Three Friends. Smith was not permanently disabled, but due to touring commitments, GG hired John Weathers to fill in. Things worked out so well with him that Weathers was soon made a permanent member of the band. This was unfortunate for Mortimer, but good news for the band and their fans, as Weathers turned out to be the perfect drummer for Gentle Giant. Mortimer returned to Gentle Giant’s music in the 2000s, playing in a spin-off band called Three Friends, which also featured Gary Green and Kerry Minnear at times.
The highlight of Three Friends is the powerful, mostly instrumental opening track ‘Prologue’, which introduces the themes of the later songs, and the lighter ‘Schooldays’, which effectively utilises the band’s trademark polyphonic vocals. The versatile ‘Mister Class And Quality?’ is also a great song for the most part, but it is slightly marred by drummer Mortimer’s occasionally tedious drumming.
The weakest track is ‘Peel The Paint’, where Derek Shulmann’s ‘hard rock vocals’ are a little uncomfortable to listen to, and Gary Green’s electric guitar riffs in the instrumental section and the uninspiring middle section don’t really get you going.
Unlike the two previous albums, which were produced by Tony Visconti, Gentle Giant did the job themselves with Three Friends. Not necessarily a smart move, as the album sounds somewhat muddier and duller than its predecessor, Acquiring The Taste.
The cover art is also a bit of a mess, with Rick Breach’s original painting of three vaguely scribbled figures crouching around a seagull being rather creepy. In the United States and Canada, the album was released with a slightly modified version of the debut album cover. A strange decision, to say the least.
Three Friends is a worthy album, but a slight disappointment after the magnificent Acquiring The Taste. However, Three Friends was slightly more successful than its predecessors and even made it onto the US album charts for the first time. Admittedly, it only reached a modest 197th place.
Three Friends was the last album featuring Phil, the eldest of the Shulman brothers. Phil Shulman had been something of a leader in the band, but his career came to an end due to an embarrassing incident involving a groupie. In a band like Gentle Giant, such behaviour was frowned upon for a family man, and Phil Shulman left the band to save his marriage.