The Sultans of swing

Byline: John Stevenson

AS MUSIC FESTIVALS go, the Tabarka Jazz Festival is an important fixture on the North African cultural calendar.

It has rapidly become the place to go for the smart jazz set and thousands of fans throng the quaint west Tunisian seaside resort every summer in search of rhythms that originated in America during the early 20th century.

So back in frosty February when I was invited by the Tunisian National Tourist Office in London to cover this festival, I was elated.

Landing at the airport in Tunisia’s capital Tunis was a cultural revelation in itself. ‘Tunis-Carthage’ is as large and predictable an international thoroughfare as you will find in any other part of the world: sullen-faced security guards standing sentry before long hallways and queues; multilingual signs just above your head to give directions (in this case mainly in Arabic and French).

What was immediately at odds with this picture, however, was the image of Mariah Carey, GDCFP (gravity defying, cleavage fully prominent). Her mounted promotional photos were found on billboards throughout the airport arrival hall. I was later informed that she would be performing for local charities in and around Tunis.

It didn’t take me too long to discover that many Tunisians enthusiastically soak up a huge variety of musical influences piped to them through the mass media–and that Mariah Carey is as popular among the country’s youthful population (comprising some 70% of the country’s 10m inhabitants) as Bob Marley and Fifty Cent.

After overnighting in Tunis, I travelled to Tabarka. The first half of the festival from all accounts saw much-lauded performances from the extraordinary funkjazz duo of Stanley Clarke and George Duke and the local jazz/Maghrebian-influenced, Neelo Feel Project. This was followed by the Algerian percussion specialist Karim Ziad, and the Polish Tigrita Project and Swiss fusion ensemble, B Connected.

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On my first night of what was arguably the most delicious half of the annual Tabarka jazz feast, so to speak, I took in the Oleg Lundstrem Memorial Jazz Orchestra, conducted by yet another Soviet-era jazz stalwart, alto saxophonist George Garanian. This was a full-bodied 15-piece unit that utilised swing rhythm effectively. What’s more, the big band roared with leonine authority on stock repertoire numbers such as Frank Foster’s Whirl), Bird, Duke Ellington’s Cotton Tail and, inescapably, Dizzy Gillespie’s Night in Tunisia.

Virile solos were turned in by Garanian himself, tenor saxist Ivan Volkov, drummer Vladimir Zurkin and trumpeter Viktor Gusseinov.

Insects buzzed around the stage of the quaint 3,000-seat Tabarka amphitheatre and the humidity left the brow fully drenched, but this was Big Band Jazz at its most delightful. The hour-long Russian jazz set was only a tune-up however: the evening’s main act, Randy Weston and The African Spirit, was balm for the musical soul. Weston, resplendent in his blue kaftan suit, reigned supreme at the Steinway baby grand piano, and was quite a sight to behold at six foot nine inches in height.

A definite coup for the jazz festival and a towering figure of American jazz, Weston is also no stranger to North Africa: he ran a jazz club in Tangier, Morocco, during the early 1970s and was one of the first musicians to perform at the inaugural Tabarka Jazz Festival in 1970. Weston’s piano playing combines a European classical grounding with evident African percussive aspects and his sympathetic sidemen (Alex Blake on double bass and Nell Clarke on congas and percussion) were very popular with the youthful audience, especially on pieces such as the Moroccan Gnawa-influenced Blue Moses and the Afro-Cuban tribute to Machito, African Sunrise.

The heavens continued to be merciful on the following day with clear skies and no rain, making way for Tunisian guitar sensation Nabil Khemir who played his customised double-necked instrument, the Rayjam (oud and electric guitar). Khemir, a prodigy from Tunis, went down very well with a unique combination of virile funkjazz guitar riffs, scat singing and Tunisian oud playing. Next up was New Orleans blues sensation Mem Shannon and his Membership road band. Yet another feather in the cap of the festival organisers. Shannon, a former taxi driver from the Crescent City mixed an uncommon, cliche-free, song-writing ability, with fun and great humour. His BB King-styled guitar-playing was the perfect foil for popular pieces such as Phunkville and Perfect World.

The penultimate night of the festival bore little relation to jazz but was very entertaining nonetheless. The evening’s opening act lifted the curtains on the eclectic pop music sound of Austrian instrumental group Tiefland, fronted by the excellent violinist Gerhart Fechner. The piece de resistance, however, came in the form of the breathtaking guitar playing of New York city blues/rock artist Popa Chubby. He sang with great conviction on numbers such as Walking with Omar, and he had fine support from bassist AJ Papas and drummer Chris Reddan.

The festival came to a fitting close on the Saturday with the American opening double act of pianist Judy Blair and tenor saxophonist/flautist Abdou Salim. They played a mixture of jazz standards and originals such as the delightful middle-eastern tinged The Passage.

The jazz session that most patrons were waiting to the end for–including the national director general of tourism–was the Ahmad Jamal Trio comprising a sprightly 76-year-old Jamal on electric and acoustic piano, agile New Orleans drummer Idris Muhammad, and a young James Cammack playing the bass violin. Theirs was a much-enjoyed session, taking listeners down memory lane to hits such as Poinciana and Swahililand. It was amazing to see the obvious rapport between these elder gentlemen of jazz and their much younger audience, who were in the main, young locals.

The first Tabarka jazz festival was in 1970, with Randy Weston at the top of the bill. The festival was founded by Tunisian Lotfi Belhassine, who believed “there was much more to the beach than sea and sand”, according to Faycal Jebari, the regional director of the Tunisian National Tourist Office. Jebari adds: “There is also the important aspect of culture. Ever since then the festival has really grown and has put Tabarka on the map as an important tourist destination.”

Jazz, however, is but one of many unique facets of Tabarka, just over two hours by road from Tunis, and 22km away from the Algerian border. It is a laid-back little town (population: 100,000) set at the foot of lush mountains, and began life as Thrabaca, a Phoenician settlement. There is an impressive 16th century Genoese fort on Tabarka island which is linked to a wide bay of impressive beaches and splendid four and five star hotels.

Unlike the rest of Tunisia, the mercury hardly hovers above 24 Celsius. Alongside all things jazz, Tabarka also plays host to well-regarded Latin, Rai and World Music festivals between July and September every year.

Tabarka and its environs offer a variety of attractions to visitors. These include PADI-centre diving, excellent golf links (18 holes par 72), and the quaint town of Ain Draham nestled in the thickly forested Khroumirie Mountains at 900m. For those with an interest in cultural heritage, a visit to the extensive Roman mosaics at Bulla Regia and the Numidian marble quarries at Chemtou is highly recommended.

I arrived back in London a shade darker and greatly enriched by the musical and cultural experiences of magical Tabarka and its friendly and hospitable people.