Jazz Musicians Perform At Novotel

Jazz lovers in and around Accra will on Saturday March 8 be treated to magnetic performances at the Novotel Hotel in Accra by two internationally acclaimed jazz masters from Europe. An excellent collaboration between Frenchman François Jeanneau and the English saxophonist Peter King, and backed by piano, bass and percussion, the concert is set to expose techniques and results of improvisations and experiments over the years. Born in Surrey, UK, King taught himself to play the clarinet at the age of 15 and quickly switched to alto saxophone. In 1959, at the age of 19, he was booked by Ronnie Scott to perform at the opening of Scott’s club in London, UK. In the same year he received the Melody Maker “New Star” award. He worked with Johnny Dankworth’s orchestra from 1960 to 1961 and went on to work with the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Tubby Hayes, Harry South, and Stan Tracey, the Brussels Big Band, and the Ray Charles band on an European tour. He has also played in small groups with musicians such as Philly Joe Jones, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Red Rodney, Hampton Hawes, Nat Adderley, Al Haig, John Burch, Bill Watrous, and Dick Morrissey, Bill Le Sage and singers such as Jimmy Witherspoon, Joe Williams, Jon Hendricks, and Anita O’Day. He is a member of Charlie Watts’ Tentet. Soprano saxophonist François Jeanneau is indeed the first among the grand old men of French jazz - although he would certainly chafe at being called “old,” at least in-so-far-as it describes his music. An important educator, he created and led for many years the Department of Jazz and Improvised Music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, France. During the 1970s he founded a large ensemble known as Pandémonium, effectively sparking the revival of contemporary large-group jazz in France, which continues unabated to this day. In that same vein, he was chosen to be the first musical director of France’s excellent Orchestre National de Jazz upon its creation in 1986. An indefatigable traveller, he has performed extensively and taught in far-flung but musically vibrant places ranging from Kazakhstan to Senegal. The concert is being sponsored by Alliance Francaise and the French Embassy in Accra.