The Jazz à la Cité festival is back for its 13th edition: 21 concerts in 19 houses on the Cité internationale campus throughout the month of October. With a special focus on improvisation and collaboration, we’ll be featuring our talented musicians in residence, a guest artist, and two alumni returning especially for the occasion. Come and feel the swing of the FEU Jazz Band, coordinated by Jonathan Mutel. Best of all, this year’s festival will feature several original compositions, in a program as diverse as jazz itself and as the 5th floor’s resident artists!
This concerts is an opportunity for us to come together around a passion that drives us and unites us: jazz and improvisation. Improvisation – the privileged means of expression brought to its peak by jazz music – offers a formidable terrain for musical encounters and openness to different musical languages. Around this inexhaustible language, bridges have been built between different universes and have been at the foundation of original musical creations supported by the FEU’s artistic projects.
~Jonathan Mutel
Practical Information
Date Tuesday, October 17 | Time 8pm | Facebook Event
Program
Jazz Standards
Indiana — James Hanley and Ballard MacDonald
Someone to Watch Over Me — George Gershwin
De Temps en temps — Josephine Baker
Samuel Gaskin (piano), Anson Jones (singer)
Improvisation
William Cravy (double bass), Jonathan Mutel (violin)
Summertime – George Gershwin (arrangement Jasha Heifetz)
Khalid McGhee (piano), Jonathan Mutel (violin)
Jazz Standards
Khalid McGhee (piano, singer)
Jazz Trios
Waltz for A.B.
Composition originale de Samuel Gaskin
Jazz standards
Samuel Gaskin (piano), William Cravy (double bass), Kyo Kawasaky (drums)
FEU Jazz Band
Lullaby of Birdland
Samuel Gaskin (piano), Anson Jones (singer), William Cravy (double bass), Jonathan Mutel (violin), Khalid McGhee (piano, singer), Kyo Kawasaky (drums)
Besame mucho
Samuel Gaskin (piano), Anson Jones (singer), William Cravy (double bass), Jonathan Mutel (violin), Khalid McGhee (piano, singer), Kyo Kawasaky (drums)
About the Artists in residency
As a keyboardist and improviser, Samuel Gaskin is interested in music of many genres. He has played harpsichord with the San Antonio Symphony, as well as piano in a number of jazz and folk music groups. Winner of the 2016 University of Michigan Organ Competition, Samuel explores the sometimes contradictory relationship between improvisation and composition. As a composer, his recent creations include Domenican Nights, for flute and piano, and In Memoriam: Chick Corea, written for the Unheard-of Ensemble. He holds a Master’s Degree in organ performance from the University of North Texas. Recipient of a Fulbright scholarship for the 2022-23 academic year, Samuel continues his organ studies as part of a Prix de Perfectionnement at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Versailles with Jean-Baptiste Robin, as well as independent studies with improviser/composer Thierry Escaich.
American pianist and collaborator, Khalid McGhee, is dedicated to exploring the convergence of musical genres. Originally from Saint Louis, Missouri, he received comprehensive training in classical piano and voice, while also covering genres like gospel, jazz, soul and musical theater. A Blue-Chip Full-tuition Scholar at the Northern Arizona University – Kitt School of Music, he received a Bachelor of Music with Distinction in Piano Performance. He continued his studies at the Institut für Musik der Hochschule Osnabrück in Lower-Saxony, Germany, winning prestigious awards such as the Deutschland Stipendium (twice) and a Fulbright grant. Parallel to his musical pursuits, Khalid’s deep-rooted passion for diverse cultures, human behavior, and cross-cultural communication is evident in his studies in pedagogy and linguistics, as well as his impactful work as an educator and collaborator. During his recent Fulbright experience, he actively explored the use of music as a tool to enhance language learning and promote social integration among school students with migrational backgrounds. He currently resides in Paris as an artist-in-residence and Harriet Hale Woolley Scholar at the Fondation des États-Unis, pursuing a Higher Diploma at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot.
Jonathan Mutel is a recognized classical violinist, open to various musical horizons. His passion for chamber music and symphonic repertoires has led him to perform in France (Philarmonie de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Salle Gaveau) but also in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and China. At the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music, he perfected his playing and expanded his repertoire thanks to his teacher Peter Brunt. It is in this context that he explored new musical horizons, such as the baroque repertoire on period instruments, the modern repertoire, and musical improvisation. He studies jazz violin at the conservatory and teaches violin at the music school of Fontenay-le-Fleury.
About the Alumni Artists
Amsterdam based double bassist Will Cravy has performed recently as a guest with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Utopia Project of Teodor Currentzis, Les Dissonances. the Netherlands and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestras, and as guest principal bass of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Asko Schönberg Ensemble, and the Festival Pablo Casals Prades (France). Will studied with David Allen Moore at the University of Southern California, and at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Olivier Thiery, Burak Marlali, and Shunske Sato. He was a 2016 Harriet Halle Woolley Scholar to study with double bass virtuoso François Rabbath.
Anson Jones is a singer, composer, and songwriter from New York City whose work pulls in turns from modern jazz, modern classical music, and popular music. She graduated from Princeton University in the class of 2022, where she won the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts and the Isodore and Helen Sacks Memorial Prize in Music. She is now a 2022-2023 Fulbright scholar in Paris, composing a suite of music inspired by Parisian examples of glass architecture. In between academic projects, she enjoys making more commercial music – she loves indie, rock, and folk music, and in June 2022 she released an EP of jazz-rock fusion on Modern Icon Recordings. For both her commercial and academic music, she’s played with her own groups around New York City, joined in writer’s showcases like the New York Songwriters’ Circle and the 5PM Concert Series, and performed at the 2020 Litchfield Jazz Festival. Anson is passionate about many other fields as well – she has passions for music cognition, computer science, art, and architecture. She has even worked at a series of architecture firms and as a data science intern at a neuroscience lab. Her range of interests all inform her approach towards music-making as an interdisciplinary process.
About the Guest Artists
Born in September 1997 in Okayama, Japan, Kyo Kawasaki began studying the cello in London at the age of 6. In 2014, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. His admission to the Académie Jaroussky in 2018 launched his career as a young soloist and chamber musician. Equally passionate about the symphonic repertoire, in 2023 he will join the academy of the Lille orchestra and the Les Siècles orchestra.