Jazz in Marciac
The jazz festival of Marciac (" Jazz in Marciac ", JIM), a small (1200 inhabitants) medieval town in Gascony in south-western France (Gers department) west of Toulouse halfway between Auch and Tarbes , takes place annually in mid-August (fifteen days around August 15) and is international. It was launched in 1978 by Jean-Louis Guilhauman, a jazz-loving English teacher and headmaster of the town (later also several times mayor), who was able to get Bill Coleman , who had retired nearby, to participate. At first it was limited to old-time jazz and gospel music and musicians like Guy Lafitte and the Golden Gate Quartet performed . Today it is an important international jazz festival with up to 180,000 visitors a year. In addition to jazz and gospel music (in the 13th century church) there is also a place for blues and rhythm and blues. The festival is still organized today by 700 volunteers. At the festival there are also concerts with free entry in the central square of the place.
Concerts and courses are also held here outside of the festival. a. directed by Wynton Marsalis (who also took over the patronage of the local school big band) and there is also a jazz school and a jazz museum ("Territoires du Jazz").
In Marciac u. a. on Dizzy Gillespie , Wayne Shorter , Sonny Rollins , Ray Brown , Stan Getz , Ray Charles , Lionel Hampton , Oscar Peterson , Max Roach , Dianne Reeves , Philip Catherine , Paolo Fresu , Aldo Romano , Tito Puente , Stéphane Grappelli , Michel Petrucciani , Joshua Redman , the Modern Jazz Quartet , Herbie Hancock , Keith Jarrett , Diana Krall , Gerry Mulligan , Ornette Coleman , Michel Portal , Joe Zawinul , The Rite of Strings ( Al Di Meola / Stanley Clarke / Jean-Luc Ponty ), Roberto Fonseca , Fatoumata Diawara and Wynton Marsalis.
