Like many festivals this summer, the Nice Jazz Fest had to adapt and change its dates to fit in between the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. Usually taking place at the end of July, the concerts will instead be held from Tuesday, August 20 to Friday, August 23. The organizers have taken advantage of the opportunity to make several changes, giving the event a facelift. Created in 1948, the festival had its heyday in the Cimiez arenas from 1974 to 2011 before returning to the city center, in the Albert I garden opposite the Promenade des Anglais.
To start off, the name was shortened to Nice Jazz Fest. In addition to the Théâtre de Verdure and the Masséna stage, two new locations have also been added: the "Kind of Blue" village for jams that traditionally took place in hotels after the concerts, and a kid's club for children to have fun while parents enjoy the program, even more eclectic than usual.
In addition to the excellent jazz groups that opened this year's edition on Tuesday, including Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few – who replaced Mulatu Astatke's ethio-jazz at short notice – and the soulful energy of San Diego band The Sacred Souls, who offered a few unreleased songs from their second album due for release in October, this year's line-up features some of the biggest names in international hip-hop. They include Ireland's Rejjie Snow, scheduled for Friday, and the airy R&B of Sampha on Thursday. And let's not forget New York rhyme champion Nas, who headlined the opening night.
The son of jazz trumpeter Olu Dara had promised to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his album Illmatic (1994), a defining moment for rap in the 1990s. But instead of repeating the same concert he gave in New York's Central Park in August 2004, where he already celebrated his classic album, Nas gave the people of Nice the opportunity to enjoy his entire career, not just that of 1994, when he traumatized rap fans with his lyrics recounting the blues of young Queensbridge residents, set to music by DJ Premier and Pete Rock.
On the packed Place Masséna, the rapper was accompanied by DJ Green Lantern and drummer Haze Amaze, with video archives of the "Soul Train" show, where presenter Don Cornelius (1936-2012) invited funk, soul and rap artists from the 1970s, as a backdrop to the main stage. Nas still has the childlike face on his 1994 album cover, but apparently, at age 50, no longer has the same memory of his countless, dense raps. Three teleprompters helped him remember the lyrics.
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