{"id":490,"date":"2017-09-03T22:48:06","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T20:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicallradio.com\/articles\/?p=490"},"modified":"2019-03-28T14:58:04","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T13:58:04","slug":"picnic-on-five-continents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicallradio.com\/articles\/en_US\/2017\/09\/03\/picnic-on-five-continents\/","title":{"rendered":"Picnic On Five Continents"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first landmark one notices on the way to the center of Marseille coming from the airport is the glistening aqueduct \u2013 the stone engulfed in the Provence sun is the most beautiful garnish of the long channel that has been providing drinking water for Marseille since the 19th Century. Later in the same epoch, In the heart of the oldest city of France and in the honor of the channel building, another monument has been structured \u2013 the \u2018\u2018Palace Long Field\u2019\u2019, that is\u00a0Palais Longchamp<\/em>.\u00a0It seems like French people are very concrete when it comes to naming things \u2013 for example, if an island is beautiful, they will simply call it Beautiful island in the sea, and in this language even common words like\u00a0Belle Ille \u0435n Mer\u00a0<\/em>sound poetic. In the same way the Long Field became \u2018\u2019long\u2019\u2019 because the crossing of five boulevards surrounds it<\/p>\n

In the park of\u00a0the said\u00a0Palais\u00a0Longchamp<\/em>\u00a0Marseille jazz Festival from the Five Continents was held for the first time at the end of the last millennium. Beside the fact that the name of the festival fits well into the surroundings of the Five Avenues quarter, it also consolidates all the things Marseille has always been unique for and is still proud of \u2013 being a multinational and multicultural city.<\/p>\n

Besides a few main recommended sites (Notre-dame\u00a0de la Guarde,\u00a0<\/em>the oldest part of the city\u00a0Le Panier<\/em>,\u00a0Chateau d\u2019If<\/em>\u00a0where Duma\u2019s count Monte Cristo was imprisoned…) I don\u2019t know much about Marseille at the moment of my arrival. The secret capital of France, as is it sometimes called, Marseille has always been an attractive place for settlers and its Old port an open gate for transitioning into a better life. Former Greek polis b. c., the center of Christianity during the Roman empire, the key point of the French Revolution, this coastal city today is the place where the Muslims, Christians, Jews and Buddhists live in harmony. Additionally, most of the residents of Marseille will point out that they are Marshes, putting aside France or their homeland, thankful for being a part of the unique \u2018\u2019Mars\u2019\u2019 on the Earth.<\/p>\n

In the context of connecting people through the music from all over the world in this multiethnic city, Jazz Festival from Five Continents was held for the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0time this year. A kind of a leitmotif for the festival was the song Silver lining \u2013 it is sang by Imany, a French singer of African descent, the striking vocal and the voice of the young generation. Whether she\u2019s addressing to the audience with a microphone or a megaphone, her universal messages \u2013\u00a0there is no black and white, there is only right and wrong\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 bring a special strength to this environment.<\/p>\n

With those (and similar) words coming through my head, I watch the people around me and the park \u2013 wonderful, but not too big. Just the right size for taking the three types of audience that don\u2019t have anything to do with the color of their skin \u2013 first are the ones that just lay down on their blankets, chitchatting, drinking the local pastis, chilling, smoking cigars or marijuana joints. The second type is a special category: parents who are not willing to renounce their night out even for their kids, so they are putting them to sleep to the lavish noise coming from the stage. And the third group are the music devotees in the front lines, dancing and listening carefully, trying not to miss anything.<\/p>\n

After a while, George Benson showed up and as soon as he arrived he brought smiles to people\u2019s faces with his cult\u00a0Afirmation<\/em>. With the still powerful voice and the perfect improvisations sliding down on his famous \u00a0ibanez,\u00a0<\/em>he captivated Marseille. Of course, numbers like\u00a0Serbian blues<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Last train to\u00a0\u010ca\u010dak\u00a0<\/em>(in the world known better\u00a0<\/em>by the name\u00a0Last train to Clarksville<\/em>) were not on the repertoire, but Benson \u2013 still\u00a0a force to be reckoned with<\/em>\u00a0on the scene \u2013 did not miss the opportunity to repeat the prescription of the old recipe for love by singing \u00a0Nature boy\u00a0(…\u00a0to love and be loved in return).\u00a0<\/em>Somewhere in the middle of the gig, just at the right moment to accompany the summer breeze, the\u00a0Breezin<\/em>\u2019 went on. The last thing played as an encore \u2013\u00a0On Broadway<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 kept on resonating for some time all along the Five avenues thanks to the whistles of the listeners who slowly returned to their houses through the night.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n