biking

Summer/cosmojazz-autumn/USA – – -r

My night shift job took out most of my summer. Enjoying simple walk in the mountain making cairns some yoga, peace and music.

The heat wave aiguille du midi

Andre Manoukian a notorious french jazz man created the cosmojazz festival in chamonix. Every year He brings a very eclectic selection of talented musicians from around the world to play music-jazz outdoor in altitude and in town . I dont know much about jazz but every year my preconceived idea of what jazz is has been baffled. Manoukian makes sure his selection includes a very wide -multi cultural- all embracing type of what could be defined as jazz music. from listening to voodoo at 2000 meters in a natural amphitheater with view on the mont blanc massif to a hanging pianist in the middle of town, it has always been peculiar, mystical and stunning.
my work schedule didn’t allow me to see most of it. Here are some pictures of what i enjoyed…

The gangbe brass band from Benin…

A band called Moriarty near the ending tongue of the argentiere basin , once again i was astound. Moriarty is the lead character in “on the road” kerouac. her voice is folkish redolent of joan baez, they play xylophone, tambourine, double bass, guitar, harmonica, suitcase drum, music box, etc…the sound is a little of folk, country, blues, jazz…in a natural amphitheatre at 2000 m on the edge of a crumbling glacier that would add some sounds,sometimes. With 4000 people who walked an hour to get there , some soap bubbles and the sun. It was free, poetic, innocent and magnificent .

The road trip took us to palestine. With the 3 palestinans brother the joubran and the iranian percussioniste yousef hbeisch. They play the oud. The oud is a sort of guitar with an oriental psychedelic sound. It was invented somewhere around syria, iraq, palestine,egypt. The legend say it was invented by lamech the sixth grand son of adam . The joudrans brothers are virtuose with it. Their father is the most renowned stringed-instruments maker in palestine and in the arab world. Their mother sang the muwashahat. 3000 years of history and culture seemed to emanate from each notes. They took us on a voyage to palestine and thru the arab culture. It was rich, peacefull and dreamy. A guy called jimi hendrix said “if there is something to be changed in the world, then it can only happen through music” .the weather being unstable it wasnt up high in the sky but in town.