Three exciting musical outings will help to round off August and usher in the first days of September: A rendezvous devoted to the magic of the string quartet in two Parisian venues, a diverse repertoire with a focus on the voice at the Septembre musical de l'Orne festival in Normandy, as well as the rich program of the 12 days of Jazz à La Villette in Paris.

For its opening night on Wednesday, August 30, the Jazz à La Villette festival, which runs until September 10 at three venues (the Philharmonie, the Grande Halle, the Cité de la Musique) inside Paris's Parc de La Villette, will welcome the American hip-hop band De La Soul, for its only date at a summer festival in France. The band, led by Posdnuos and DJ Maseo – its third founder David Jude Jolicoeur, known as Trugoy The Dove, died on February 12 – will include a drummer, bassist, keyboardist and a wind section.

The festival's rich program connects jazz with related music (soul, electro, world music and so on). Notable performers include saxophonist Laurent Bardainne with his group Tigre d'eau douce, who already performed at this festival in 2019, on Thursday; singer José James and bassist and singer Meshell Ndegeocello on Friday; the groups Steam Down, Ezra Collective and organist Delvon Lamarr's trio on Saturday; trumpeter Theo Croker on Sunday; the duo of pianist Bill Laurance and bassist Michael League on September 4; double bassist Henri Texier's septet on September 5; singer Oumou Sangaré on September 6; soul singer Lee Fields, the duo of saxophonist Pierrick Pédron and pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba on September 7; jazz fusion group Sixun on September 8; the GoGo Penguin trio on September 9; singer Samara Joy on September 10.

Jazz à La Villette Festival, at Parc de La Villette, access 221 Avenue Jean-Jaurès, Paris 19. August 30 to September 10. From €21 to €48.

Extremely diverse both geographically and aesthetically, the program of Septembre musical de l'Orne in Normandy will give a glimpse of its diversity, both in repertoire and in size, right from the opening weekend, from the sprawling ensemble Les Surprises, directed by organist Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas (Friday, in the basilica of Alençon) to the intimate piano of Philippe Bianconi (Sunday, in the church of Ecouché-les-Vallées). Bestion de Camboulas will present two Odes à Sainte-Cécile – one very well-known (Henry Purcell), the other much less so (John Blow) – in an exclusively Baroque opening, on Friday, and Bianconi will respond with two forms of roaming – free (Brahms' Rhapsodies) and referenced (Schumann's Carnaval, Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit) – in the closing, on Sunday.

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