Featuring modern and contemporary, the festival will have some outstanding

live performances by bands from participating countries. By Anand Holla

Michel Petrucciani was born with a body full of broken bones. He could not walk, grew to just 99cm, and was not expected to live beyond the age of 20. Yet the genius in him would brave all odds and create history.

The maverick French jazz pianist was afflicted with osteogenesis imperfect or “glass bone disease,” a genetic disease that causes brittle bones, and in his case, even short stature. A moving 102-minute documentary on the late jazz legend and his extraordinary relationship with music will be one of the highlights of the Katara European Jazz Festival that opens next week.

Katara, in co-operation with French, German, Swiss, Italian and Austrian embassies of Qatar, is unveiling the festival on October 28 with Michael Radford’s documentary on Petrucciani at 7.30pm. The man known for his racy playing style and smooth improvisations, passed away at 36.

Born in 1962 in Orange, in the South of France, Petrucciani didn’t go to school. Instead, he played jazz piano in his room for 10 hours a day under the guidance of his jazz musician father. All through his life, his bones would fracture routinely. Even while playing concerts, his tendons would snap and fingers would shatter. But Petrucciani was not the one to stop. He believed in living life in a rush. In the years before his death, he performed more than 200 concerts a year.

The Katara Opera House will screen another fascinating French gypsy jazz documentary Les Fils du Vent on October 29 at 7.30pm. Bruno Le Jean’s 90-minute film on the “Brothers of the Wind” follows four manouche guitarists Angello Debarre, Ninine Garcia, Tchavolo Schmitt and Moreno on their musical journey. They love Django Reinhardt and the documentary is sure to make you fall in love with rural France and French gypsy culture.

On October 30, you can take part in an interesting workshop on communication in music, and follow it up with some cool live jazz, courtesy the Italian group Stefano Battaglia’s Trio at 7pm and Germany’s Jan Schneider Quartet at 9pm.

The Italian trio, for instance, features Battaglia on piano along with Salvatore Maiore on double bass and Roberto Dani on drums, who integrate various styles into their brand of jazz, including classical. Battaglia, who has recorded more than 60 CDs, described his last year’s album Songways as “a new harmonic balance between archaic modal pre-tonal chant and dances, pure tonal songs and hymns and abstract texture.”

On October 31, Trio Alptraum from Switzerland will perform, followed by the drum exploits of Bertrand Renaudin from France. Having released more than 30 records and toured across the world, Renaudin is a big name among jazz enthusiasts.

A feast of modern and contemporary jazz, the festival will essentially try to recreate the dreamy atmosphere of jazz nights of Europe. Two more music workshops are lined up for the afternoon of November 1. The festival ends with a performance by the Austrian trumpets, bass and drums trio Mario Rom’s Interzone.

 

 

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