Originally to have taken place in July 2020, the 60 anniversary edition of Jazz à Juan will now kick off July 9 through 20, 2021.
Opening night will feature the Kenny Barron All Star Quartet. A nine-gold Grammy Awards winner, Kenny Barron is one of the piano jazz greats who also was a prominent member of the legendary bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker and Stan Getz. Another American Jazz great will follow July 11 with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. For the full program, click here
Jazz à Juan has hosted all the Jazz greats from Ella Fitzgerald, Charles Mingus and Ray Charles to Miles Davis and Branford and Wynton Marsalis. In the words of their sites website: “The first «Jazz à Juan» festival, created as a tribute to a famous musician who loved Antibes, none other than Sidney Bechet, was the event that sparked off many other festivals which quickly spread across Europe.” Claude Nobs, inventor of the great Montreux event, said himself: "If I hadn't passed through Antibes, Montreux wouldn't exist." The concept was revolutionary. For the first time, the general public could discover the main artists of the great saga which jazz had already become, with the heros on stage in person, and the most beautiful decor one could wish for under the hundred-year-old pine trees of pinède Gould facing the Mediterranean Sea. It was certainly a bit of a gamble, but one which more than lived up to its promises."