From April 14 to 22, 2023, the Cully Jazz Festival celebrated its 40th edition. For the occasion, the poster streamed with sparkling notes and prestigious names. Soprano Barbara Hendricks, pianist Cheick Tidiane Seck, singer Michael Mayo, chorister Sona Jobarteh, drummer Manu Katché, the collective Kokoroko, multi-instrumentalist Mulatu Astatke, among others, made this small Swiss town on the edge of the Lake Geneva. Our microphones captured the excitement of this anniversary program.
On Sunday, April 16, 2023, a crystalline voice revitalized “spirituals” inherited from African-American heritage. The illustrious Barbara Hendricks delivered a shivering performance during which she interpreted a few hymns taken from “The Epic of Black Music”. Of People Get Ready To We Shall Overcomethe repertoire on the program for this sumptuous evening was inspired by his album The Road To Freedom and seemed to call for equality and harmony among peoples. This is not the first time that Madame Hendricks has played with the harmonies of jazz, blues and gospel. For 30 years, she has periodically allowed herself to be intoxicated by the secular and sacred melodies of black America.
This artistic choice is also, in his eyes, a civic commitment. If the songs, divinely restored by its incredible range, send us back to a painful past when segregation cruelly struck part of the American population, they are also the necessary reminder of a social situation that is still harsh and unjust in the 21st century. Barbara Hendricks is a woman of heart who does not shirk her personal convictions for the benefit of a luminous public image. Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, she knows how to detect injustices and denounce them. His many trips across the planet give him a legitimacy that cannot be disputed.
Her singing tour was not only a moment of pure musical pleasure, it alerted us to the excesses of our societies. It is never insignificant to take possession of a work as emblematic as Strange Fruit immortalized by Billie Holiday. It is never futile to appropriate the rebellious spirit of Nina Simone through the classic I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free. Barbara Hendricks is fully aware that these songs have a meaning and an impact on people’s consciences. She sublimates them in a bewitching vocal and poetic lyricism. The ovation of the Swiss public undoubtedly approved this audacity. The 40th Cully Jazz Festival was just beginning, but how!
⇒ The website of Barbara Hendricks
⇒ The website of Cully Jazz festival.