INNtöne Jazz Festival – 18-20 juillet 2025

For its 40th anniversary, from July 18 to 20, the festival delivered its usual eclectic programme, carefully curated by its mastermind, trombonist Paul Zauner. Paul’s ear for spotting promising vocalists is well-known — long before his June 2, 2012 concert at La Cigale, the now-famous Gregory Porter made his first European appearance at INNtöne in 2010.

When it comes to musical choices, audiences can trust Zauner’s instinct — and the loyal jazz aficionados who camp on site every year would agree. Experiencing more than twenty concerts spread over three days is a bit like sitting at a Michelin-starred table and being seduced by a succession of exquisite courses.

This year’s menu featured a strong English flavour: from poet Anthony Joseph — winner of the 2023 T.S. Eliot Prize for Sonnets for Albert — who brought the festival to a glorious close on Sunday night, to the stunning trio of vocalist Heidi Vogel, pianist Liam Noble, and Czech bassist Jiri Slavik on Friday. The festival also served as a playground for six young London-based musicians whose project, Vortex London Whirlpool, was a nod to both the legendary Vortex Jazz Club in North London and the late John Taylor’s mythical Whirlpool album.

Kicking off Friday in the barn (Scheunenbühne) with a flexible line-up, by Saturday the group had gelled into a tight collective, particularly showcasing the whimsical vocals of Swedish singer Rebecka Edlund and the lyrical phrasing of saxophonist Kasper Rietkerk. Rietkerk, whose style recalls a certain Jan Garbarek, has just released an excellent album, The Happy Worrier, featuring guitarist John Parricelli — clearly one of Europe’s saxophonists to watch closely.

Though, as in many jazz festivals, the audience’s average age hovers around retirement, the same cannot be said for the performers on stage. Returning for the fifth year, the eight young Austrians of Jumping Jungle made a remarkable leap forward

Now aged between 12 and 15, they live and breathe jazz — none more so than Xaver Plankensteiner, a prodigy who moves effortlessly between keyboards in the spirit of Stevie Wonder, whose repertoire features prominently in their set. His sister Mena — flautist, saxophonist, and vocalist — is the soul of the group, which, like Vortex London Whirlpool, performed no fewer than five times over the weekend. The two ensembles even joined forces for their final set.

Before that, Jumping Jungle invited a very young flautist — my nine-year-old daughter, Valérie Dorban — on stage for a rendition of Alligator Boogaloo, as well as vocalist Blair Clark, who happily duetted with Mena Plankensteiner on Superstition. As a member of the Powerhouse Band, which had closed Saturday night under a starry sky, Clark is no stranger to funk and R&B, with a special affection for Al Jarreau, to whom he paid tribute with an original composition.

While the UK took centre stage in this year’s line-up, French jazz was also well represented. Festival regular Yaron Herman returned to present his brand-new album Radio Paradise, a quartet project in which rising star saxophonist Maria Grand particularly shone.

Another French highlight was Titi Robin with his project Le Sable et l’écume, an initiatory journey toward distant India in musical dialogue with flautist Rishab Prasanna, enriched by the gorgeous double bass lines of Chris Jennings.

Witnessing such high-level jazz felt like time had stood still, the music making us forget the oppressive heat of a summer afternoon in Upper Austria.

Speaking of summer, Italian pianist Francesca Tandoi performed the celebrated Estate, already played here — under the same sweltering conditions — by Monty Alexander in 2022. Every time it’s the same: the heat and the song’s wistful lyrics make me dream of winter — proof that too much sun can make you delirious, even “die of pain,” as the song says.

She followed with Jobim’s Agua de beber and closed the set with an original piece, Hope, a sentiment in short supply in these uncertain times.

Jazz is often a family affair, as we saw with the Plankensteiner siblings — not forgetting their father’s role as both musician and sound engineer for the barn concerts.

Another family in the spotlight was that of pianist Hans Koller. Alongside his brother, saxophonist John O’Gallagher, and his 12-year-old son on trombone and euphonium, the new Director of London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire presented a Monk-inspired original repertoire.

Families do not always gather on stage, but in trumpeter Mario Rom’s case, three pairs of eyes followed him closely during his St Pigs Pub sets — those of his wife and two young sons, who didn’t want to miss a note of his fiery exchanges with Salesny. Together with Carlton Holmes on piano, Wolfram Derschmidt on double bass, and Dusan Novakov on drums, they paid tribute to Eric Dolphy.

For those seeking new sensations, there was plenty to discover. American multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson introduced the audience to the tarogato — a Hungarian clarinet-like instrument rarely heard in jazz. He had just returned from the seventh annual International Tarogato Congress in Hungary. The voice, of course, is an instrument in its own right, and the four Sardinian singers of Tenore de Orosei blended theirs beautifully with the cello of Ernst Reijseger in their project The Face of God. Not the easiest work to approach, perhaps, but the audience was won over — especially when the quartet wove their way through the crowd.

Though this jubilee was a success, Paul Zauner, now 65, plans to open a new chapter next year. For various good reasons, he has decided to return to the festival’s original format: indoor concerts only, over just two days. We can bet the audience will remain loyal, and we wish him well — or, as they say here, viel Glück.