orchestre national de jazz
30th Anniversary Concert

at the Cité de la musique
Philharmonie de Paris
Festival Jazz à la Villette

CD – DVD SET DELUXE DITION
Release date: April 27, 2018

ONJ Records 464444 / L’Autre Distribution

WITH
ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE JAZZ
OLIVIER BENOIT

FRANÇOIS JEANNEAU
ANTOINE HERVÉ
CLAUDE BARTHÉLEMY
DENIS BADAULT
LAURENT CUGNY
DIDIER LEVALLET
PAOLO DAMIANI
FRANCK TORTILLER
DANIEL YVINEC

SPECIAL GUESTS
ÉLISE CARON, YAEL NAIM

WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF
MUSIC STUDENTS FROM THE ‘CONSERVATOIRE NATIONAL SUPÉRIEUR DE MUSIQUE ET DE DANSE’ (CNSM, PARIS) & THE NORWEGIAN MUSIC ACADEMY (NORGES MUSIKKHØGSKOLE, OSLO)

INTRODUCTIONS
ARNAUD MERLIN

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For its 30th birthday, France’s National Jazz Orchestra — the “Orchestre National de Jazz”, ONJ — brought together onstage every Artistic Director to lead the ONJ since its inception. The idea was to give a historic concert on September 2, 2016 at the Cité de la Musique – the Philharmonie de Paris – during the ‘Jazz à la Villette’ Festival. With the release of this special CD-DVD set, recorded with the invaluable assistance of Radio France and Oléo Films, the label ONJ Records invites you to re-live this exceptional event.

In thirty years of existence, the ONJ has unveiled eleven thrilling projects and offered its audiences a vast panorama of French big band jazz. From François Jeanneau, who had the honour of inaugurating the ONJ formula, to Olivier Benoit, the current Artistic Director, this orchestra, unique in its genre, has for 30 years promoted a truly plural identity of French jazz in as many singular forms.

For this great birthday party hosted by Arnaud Merlin, each ONJ director — François Jeanneau, Antoine Hervé, Claude Barthélemy (who led the orchestra twice), Denis Badault, Laurent Cugny, Didier Levallet, Paolo Damiani, Franck Tortiller, Daniel Yvinec and Olivier Benoit — was asked to choose a piece of his own composing as a symbol for the repertoire of the ONJ during his mandate. These eleven performances were conducted by the Orchestra’s previous leaders with soloists from Olivier Benoit’s current ONJ, augmented for the event with music students from the CNSM in Paris and from Norway’s Music Academy in Oslo, the Norges Musikkhøgskole, in order to restore the original piece with its line-up of the period. The concert — a kind of retrospective in the shape of a composite suite in chronological order, 1986-2016 — was seen as a way of highlighting both the undeniable historical continuity in all these languages that belong to the same tradition and its evolution, and the extreme richness of the formal content proposed by every permutation of the orchestra.

An ONJ at 30 also means nearly 150 soloists — an impressive total of wonderful players — who were gathered by the ONJ’s directors to undeniably nourish the collective adventure with their individual voices: 30 years of associations as eclectic as they remain unforgettable, with invited artists contributing at various times for either a project or a concert. Echoing those rich encounters, two vocalists joined the cast for this 30th Anniversary Concert as special guests: Élise Caron, who was a member of the ONJ led by Denis Badault, and Yael Naim, who lent her voice to the project “Around Robert Wyatt” created by Daniel Yvinec during his own ONJ tenure.

Consisting of the takes recorded by Radio France and Oléo Films, which were broadcast on France Musique and Culturebox in 2016, this previously unreleased set takes us straight to the heart of a unique moment in the history of the Orchestre National de Jazz, with thirty-two artists making us a present of that moment, together with comments, memories, anecdotes and wishes for the future, from the ONJ’s eleven directors.

At the dawn of a new mandate, the adventure continues…

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The concert was recorded with technical resources provided by Radio France and Oléo films at the Cité de la Musique in Paris on September 2, 2016, during the ‘Jazz à la Villette’ Festival.

Sound Radio France
Ingineeer Pierre Bornard
Assistants Christophe Goudin & Loïc Duros
Mixing Pierre Bornard & Maïkôl Seminatore
September 2017, Radio France
Mastering Marwan Danoun
Octobre 2017, Galaxy Studios

Video Oléo films
Filmmaking Josselin Carré

Festival Jazz à la Villette
a co-production by
Cité de la musique – Philharmonie de Paris / La Villette

With the participation of France Télévisions – Culturebox
in co-production with Radio France

 

 

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