For its 40th edition, the Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, from July 6 to 19, 2025, offered us in its Jazz & more program, concocted by Pascal Rozat and Patrice Héral, a line-up of contrasting artists from Brad Mehldau to Feu! Chatterton alongside Baptiste Trotignon, David Krakauer, Airelle Besson, Jowee Omicil and Jeanne Added.
Here’s a look back at the last four concerts at the former Ursuline convent, once a prison and barracks, now the Agora, Cité Internationale de la Danse.
David krakauer & Kathleen Tagg’s Good Vibes explosion
Under the ochre of the Occitan sky, friend Alex Dutil introduces us to clarinettist and singer David Krakauer, whom he has been following for 25 years. The bass clarinet quickly propels us into a sonic voyage that seems to take us on a tangent on the waves of the world’s origins. With Sarah MK‘s first rap, Jammin’ with Socalled, the groove settles us into the Good Vibes, the positive waves David is looking for to “share our humanity in this disgusting world”. This humanity is expressed on first listen to this group from the four corners of the globe. From Canada for rapper Sarah MK, from South Africa for multi-instrumentalist Kathleen Taggs, from Iran for Martin Shamoonpour on Daf and Jew’s harp, from the USA for Brad Shepik on guitar, Jérome Harris on bass and John Hadfied on drums.
Always in search of his Eastern European Jewish heritage, David Krakauer distills klesmer harmonic traits into almost every track. From the polka Krakky’s Rainbow created by Sarah MK to Bella’s Calypso in homage to Harry Bellafonte and the Synagogue Wail for solo clarinet. The ballad I am a poor wayfarin stranger, sung by former Sonny Rollins bassist Jerome Harris, is an UFO in this concert’s playlist, plunging us into the Montpellier night and transporting us to distant cotton fields under the melancholy drone of Kathleen Tagg’s cello. Then, when David Krakauer performs Love song for Lemberg/Lvov in memory of his grandmother, a flight of doves flies over the Théâtre de l’Agora to underscore this prayer for peace, with the lyrical flights of a clarinet with the intonations of Goran Bregovic. The evening comes to a close with a frenzied Moskovitz and Loops of it klesmer rap that gets everyone on their feet under the stars. Good Vibes, a bet kept. Thanks David.
Besson Sternal Burgwinkel
A single trumpet is enough to convince you of the reputation of the Théâtre de l’Agora as the place to be for pure, delicate jazz, and it’s that of trumpeter Airelle Besson, surrounded by pianist Benjamin Moussay (replacing Sebastian Sternal at short notice) and drummer Jonas Burgwinkel.
From The Sound of your voice onwards, the three musicians establish a particular harmony, offering us a rare understanding despite the absence of Sebastian Sternal, the trio’s pianist since its inception in 2013, who has been detained in Germany for family reasons. But Airelle and Benjamin are “old” accomplices, notably with their “Ballade avec Miles”, and the too rarely played Fendez Rhodes takes its rightful place in the theater’s alcove.
Surprise could be the watchword of this concert. Surprise when Airelle extends a facetious trill to drown out the hum of the Civil Security helicopter’s blades as it flies over the theater, giving her time to get out of the way and resume the melodic suite. Surprise when Airelle once again evokes Sebastian, who told her ten years ago “Let’s surprise ourself” at the entrance to a concert. This was the title of their first album, Surprise, released in 2024. Surprise when the sound of cicadas and swifts – the joy of open-air theaters – introduces Calgary’s subtle piano solo. Surprises were the order of the day, and concerts are sometimes too short when the notes of Time to Say Goobye are running out. This one was.
Poets of the forest Arnaud Dolmen / Michel Alibo / Jowee Omicil
It all begins with a murmur from the depths of a tropical forest populated by animals with strange cries, as we follow our guides Jowee Omicil on saxophones, Michel Alibo on double bass and Arnaud Dolmen on drums. The three poets have come to awaken the souls of Montpellier’s urban forest to offer us a concentrate of Caribbean culture.
From a prayer to all the world’s children to a tribute to those we never forget, the forest guardians invite us to a meditation in sound, where the bass clarinet becomes a procession, where the solo of a crazy saxophone seems to echo the already distant vibrations of Albert Ayler’s saxophone at the Maeght Foundation, and where the Martinican, Guadeloupean and Haitian origins of the three musicians intertwine between the notes. Our three poets not only take us on a journey of sound exploration, but also bring to life this forest theater, where the shadows of nuns seem to hover over the courtyard, where the bugle call of a barracks makes the walls crumble into dust, where the howling of prisoners becomes a whisper, where the beating of dancing shoes that brush the floor marks the rhythm of the night and the ghostly wind that blows. A cathartic concert.
Jeanne Added – The Joni Mitchell songbook
Sometimes everything is fragile. The fragility of a summer’s weather that floods the stage of the Agora theater a few minutes before the artists’ entrance, forcing the meticulous organizers of this festival to push back the concert to 10pm when it was supposed to be sold out at 8:30pm.
Fragility of an audience, sometimes coming from afar, unable to wait for the encore.
Fragility of the voice of Jeanne Added, daughter of the storm, who, seeing the hall three-quarters full, moves us: “You’ve come back!” The fragility of the penumbra that settles in, and which suits Jeanne Added’s night music so well, as she revisits Joni Mitchell‘s greatest songs with their sometimes complex rhythms. And how beautiful is fragility when it’s supported by artists like Bruno Ruder on piano, Vincent Lê Quang on saxophone and subtle arrangements, Marc Ducret with his astonishing touch on guitar, Vincent Courtois on cello and Sarah Murcia on double bass. Jeanne Added gave us a moment out of time, and I was almost thanking the rain for having created this tense climate conducive to musical overcoming and appeasement. It all ended with Joni Mitchell’s probably best-known song: Both sides now, which evokes the interpretation of clouds and the fragility of life. “I really don’t know coulds at all”. A track for the evening.
A wonderful evening and a wonderful Jeanne Added who reminded me of the poem written by James Baldwin for Lena Horne : Le Sporting-Club de Monte-Carlo [1].
Jeanne Added, daughter of the storm, singing through us with a voice from another age. That was it.
These four concerts were recorded and will be broadcast this summer on France Musique.
Photos Christian Cascio
[1] Dans Le nom du son de Franck Médioni & Tom Burton – Edition Le Castor Astral 2024
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