Jazz a Vienne a Windsor
by Erika Gelinard
Jazz à Vienne Sydney: Wednesday 10th, Friday 12th, Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th October at the Sebel resort and spa, and the Windsor golf club. Bookings and information: www.jazzaviennesydney.com(Some events are free and others not.)
Major French festival Jazz à Vienne now has a little sister in Sydney: Hawkesbury valley towns of Windsor, Richmond and Rouse Hill are hosting their first festival this week.
It started last weekend and runs until Sunday with jazz concerts from artists such as French duet Philippe Khoury (pianist) and Frederique Brun (singer), German quartet Exchange and Australian big band Birdyard.
Rory Thomas, jazz artist and director of the music school of Rouse Hill, is the father of this new-born festival and its artistic director. "I've been working in France for 12 years with the mayor of Vienne on the festival, and we decided to set up a sister city event around Windsor", he says before a rehearsal.
Thomas highlights the parallels between Vienne and Windsor: "Vienne is 2000 years old, and Windsor is one of the oldest towns in Australia - 220 years old. Both towns are also alongside a river." That's 220 settler years, of course, Windsor has been a significant meeting place for millennia.
The French Jazz à Vienne's 27th festival in July was a two-week event drawing more than 150,000 people. The Gallo-Roman town in South-East France and its historic heritage – particularly the ancient Roman theatre – is the flagship of jazz music featuring over the years stars such as Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins and so on.
Vienne's jazz festival is one of the world's most prestigious ones alongside Montreal (Canada), Montreux (Switzerland) or La Haye (Netherlands).
"We're very lucky to produce Jazz à Vienne here", says Rory Thomas. "We had a great first weekend with a standing ovation for Philippe Khoury and Frederique Brun and the German ensemble was very exciting too."
According to the musical director, it's a great opportunity for the audience to be exposed to international artists and the "different flavour" of their jazz. "French jazz is much more emotive than Australian jazz, so it can bring more soul and harmony and help the Australian jazz culture to grow."
Thomas and his French colleagues,Khoury and Brun, have also set up an exchange program between music students: the result is Alliance, a six piece ensemble with three students from Rouse Hill and three others visiting from Vienne.
Thomas readily admits to minor translation problems – French students don't speak English very well and Australian students don't speak French at all – but reckons with philosophical humour that "music says it all". More seriously he explains that his festival focuses on youth. Next Sunday the cultural attaché of the French embassy will announce the names of the four local students invited to perform in next year's Jazz à Vienne in France.
French pianist and teacher Philippe Khoury, who is familiar with the French Jazz à Vienne, says that the first run of a festival is always a challenge for its organisers – with few sponsors and a reputation to make.
So far Thomas is satisfied with the 3000 people who have come during the first weekend, and hopes that to attract another 5000 by the end of the week.
"We have many Sydneysiders in our audience, but people from all over NSW have also booked for next weekend. The majority is between 30 and 60, and there are also families", says Thomas before concluding that "if you have good jazz, people will travel to hear it."
