Jazz à Vienne

A fortnight of jazz, soul, hip-hop and Afrobeat each summer in Vienne, a small town near Lyon in France. Since 1981 the festival has filled the town's ancient Roman theatre with concerts every evening from the end of June into July.

• Concerts every evening in Vienne's ancient Roman theatre
• Running each summer since 6 July 1981
• Herbie Hancock has played the festival over a dozen times
• Past artists include Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Chuck Berry
• Soul, hip-hop and Afrobeat share the bill with jazz

What it is

Every summer the town of Vienne, near Lyon, hands itself over to music. For about two weeks spanning the end of June and early July, a stage stands inside the town's ancient Roman theatre, and each evening a concert fills its stone tiers. Jazz is the root of the programme, but the roots branch wide: soul, hip-hop and Afrobeat all share the bill. The roll of past performers speaks for itself — Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Chuck Berry have all played here. The theatre, though, is only the centrepiece. Through the fortnight, music spreads across Vienne, with smaller shows on other stages around town and sets in local pubs. For the people who keep it going, these two weeks are when their town becomes a summer home for live music of every kind.

Where it comes from

The first edition took place on 6 July 1981, the work of three founders: Pierre Domeyne, Jean-Paul Boutellier and Jean Gueffier. From that single summer the festival grew into an annual fixture, returning each year as June turns to July. Its longevity is part of its story: more than four decades on, artists who played Vienne early in their careers keep coming back. Herbie Hancock alone has performed there upwards of a dozen times, a measure of the loyalty the festival inspires in the musicians who grace its stage.

How it is celebrated

The heartbeat of the festival is the evening concert in the Roman theatre. As dusk settles over the ancient tiers, audiences take their seats and the music begins below — jazz one night, soul or Afrobeat the next. The stage has carried an extraordinary range of artists: Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Michel Petrucciani, Lionel Hampton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Joe Zawinul, Brad Mehldau and, more recently, Vulfpeck. But the theatre does not hold a monopoly. All through the fortnight, smaller concerts take place on stages scattered across Vienne, and pubs open their doors to live sets, so that on a festival evening the whole town hums. The atmosphere is that of a place given over to sound: neighbours and travellers drifting between venues while the old stones lend each performance their own resonance.

Joining in

The place to head for is Vienne itself, near Lyon, during the festival's stretch from the end of June into July — often running up to the 13th. Expect a headline show every evening in the Roman theatre, with the rest of the programme spilling onto smaller stages and into pubs around town. Many musicians return year after year, so the programme rarely repeats itself. Line-ups and details are on the festival's official website, jazzavienne.com.

Sources and attribution

This page is EveryMela's own summary, written in new words. Its facts are drawn from the Wikipedia article Jazz à Vienne, whose text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Each photo is credited to its author beside it. For the full account, read the originals below.

Read more

• Jazz à Vienne on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Official websiteOfficial site
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos
• Wikidata recordOpen data

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