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Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.


May 2019 - Juan les Pins, France

Jazz à Juan


Each year, the south of France towns of Juan-les-Pins and Antibes ring to the sounds of jazz. The festival in Juan, which always takes place in July, has been going since 1960 when luminaries of the jazz world such as Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Guy Pedersen, Stéphane Grappelli and Sister Rosetta Tharpe filled the arena. Since then, all the great names of jazz have performed here from Ella Fitzgerald to Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson to Nina Simone. It has kept its lustre and fame through the years.

Along the Boulevard Edouard Baudoin, which runs behind the seaside stage that hosts the annual jazz festival, ceramic tiles containing handprints of more than 50 musicians who have played at the festival dot the sidewalk. Among those enshrined on the boulevard are Al Jarreau, B.B. King, Chick Corea, Clark Terry, Dave Brubeck, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Eddy Louiss, Elvin Jones, Fats Waller, Grant Green, George Benson, Hank Jones, Jack DeJohnette, Gary Peacock, Joshua Redman, Keith Jarrett, Little Richard, Milt Jackson, Oscar Peterson, Pat Metheny, Pink Floyd, Ravi Coltrane, Ray Charles, Richard Galliano, Roy Haynes, Shirley Horn, Sonny Rollins, Stéphane Grappelli, Stevie Wonder and Wynton Marsalis.

The line-up has altered over the years to take in different music styles and to attract a new audience (which in 2014 reached 50,000 from 33 different countries), with country singers like Betty Carter appearing, as well as Carlos Santana with his fusion of rock and Latin American sounds, the eclectic singer, drummer and producer Phil Collins, singer Tom Jones and the London Community Gospel Choir.

Click here for a video featuring this sculptor, Jacq Kino at the Jazz Festival.

The Miles Davis album 1969 Miles – Festiva De Juan Pins was recorded at the 1969 edition of the festival.

Jazz a Juan - best of 2015.