species has drum-like organs and produces a high-pitched drone. Just the right note for Ella it seems!
One man who’s indelibly linked to Antibes/Juan-les-Pins and a famous partygoer was American soprano sax player, Sidney Bechet. A pathfinder of the New Orleans revival style, Bechet tied the knot in Antibes in 1951 and the nuptials were followed by one of the biggest street parties ever to be seen on the French Riviera. After Bechet’s death in 1959 the festival was founded in his honour.
And the show goes on with a host of leading contemporary players now setting the pace and the Pinède alight. The 2016 programme is packed with a host of top acts and features two of America’s leading saxophonists, Archie Shepp (champion of free jazz) and Charles Lloyd (the most hip of all tenor sax players).
One of America’s iconic blues guitarists - revered by Eric Clapton who said that he is the ‘best guitarist of all time’, is also back on the agenda to show off his earthy, roaring and driving Louisiana blues-style sound which he dispenses with clarity and ease. Born in 1936, Buddy Guy is a living legend and has enjoyed a career spanning more than half a century, selling millions of albums and collecting honours galore along the way.
One group to look out for this year is French-based outfit, Maryline and the Family Company. They look set to rock the Pinède to the wee small hours offering their audience a feast of rock ‘n’ roll and country-rock classics as a tribute to American music. In fact, it was at a country-rock gig at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, that they first met. Returning to France, they took the plunge and started their own ‘family’ business based upon their shared enthusiasm for the music and the great songwriters they most admire.
France (and Paris, in particular) has been so important in nurturing and developing jazz since the Roaring Twenties. Antibes/Juan-les-Pins became a second home to many jazz-loving Parisian vaudeville stars such as Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguett, and has surely carved its name with pride in the history of jazz.
Turn the clock back and you’ll touch base with the immortal songbird, Ella, who’s still fondly remembered for famously improvising a duet with a chirping cicada, which, if you don’t know, is a stout-bodied insect with large membranous wings. The male of the