Joëlle Léandre: Life, Struggle, Music
A World Premiere Documentary Featuring Improvisor and 2023 Vision Festival Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Joëlle Léandre
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
7 PM Eastern Time
LIVESTREAM ONLY! Fundraiser tickets available from $10 to $150
All Proceeds Support Arts for Art’s Lifetime Achievement Award
7 PM Eastern Time
LIVESTREAM ONLY! Fundraiser tickets available from $10 to $150
All Proceeds Support Arts for Art’s Lifetime Achievement Award
On Tuesday, March 28 at 7 PM Eastern Time, Arts for Art proudly presents the world premiere of Life, Struggle, Music - an exclusive documentary featuring legendary French bassist Joëlle Léandre in never-before-seen solo performance, and in conversation with RogueArt label founder Michel Dorbon. Shot by Christian Pouget in the South of France, Ms. Léandre speaks with Dorbon about her exposure to FreeJazz in the 1970’s and the freedom it represented at a time when she was immersed in traditional and modern classical music. Léandre discusses her attraction to the energy and absence of hierarchy in the FreeJazz movement, what it meant to be a woman in the music industry at the time, and what it means in a music industry still controlled by men today.
The film shares insights into the music and heart of this great musician. This exclusive livestream event is a virtual fundraiser in support of Ms. Léandre’s upcoming 2023 Vision Festival Lifetime of Achievement Celebration, a night of live performances on the opening night of Vision Festival (June 13) at Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, NY. The Vision Festival Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to artists who have attained preeminent status in the world of FreeJazz. Starting with the 10th Vision Festival in 2005, Arts for Art has awarded twenty artists over the past seventeen years.
Vision Festival 2023: Improvising the Future will take place June 13 to 18, 2023. Full schedule of performers coming soon!
The film shares insights into the music and heart of this great musician. This exclusive livestream event is a virtual fundraiser in support of Ms. Léandre’s upcoming 2023 Vision Festival Lifetime of Achievement Celebration, a night of live performances on the opening night of Vision Festival (June 13) at Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, NY. The Vision Festival Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to artists who have attained preeminent status in the world of FreeJazz. Starting with the 10th Vision Festival in 2005, Arts for Art has awarded twenty artists over the past seventeen years.
Vision Festival 2023: Improvising the Future will take place June 13 to 18, 2023. Full schedule of performers coming soon!
About Joëlle Léandre
A progenitor of European improvisation, bassist Joëlle Léandre’s ongoing career is an integral story in 20th and 21st century music. Leandre has amassed over 200 recordings, including numerous collaborations with fellow improvising luminaries such as Marilyn Crispell, Anthony Braxton, Myra Melford, William Parker, Irène Schweizer, Derek Bailey, Nicole Mitchell, and many more. From early in her career, the caliber of her talent attracted attention. Leandre has performed with Leornard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Giacinto Scelsi, as well as with Merce Cunnigham and John Cage. The latter two composed “Ryoanji” for Leandre specifically. Over 40 composers have dedicated pieces for her.
Joëlle Léandre (born September 12, 1951) started playing music at age 8, initially playing the recorder before moving on to the piano. At 17, she studied at Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris. In Paris, Leandre encountered “the new thing,” musicians escaping America for fair compensation and proper recognition, including Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, Art Ensemble of Chicago. In a 2020 interview with Ken Weiss in freejazzblog.org, she commented: “They gave me jubilation, everything was new. Everything was possible. This was my generation. They gave me the message to ‘be you.’”
Léandre became a self-described “worker bee”, meeting and working with John Cage in 1972, writing music for dance in 1974, and leaving France for Buffalo, New York in 1976 to work with Morton Feldman. She met William Parker in 1979, and performed in a bass quartet with him, Peter Kowald, and Paul Rodgers. The following year, she moved to Berlin and performed with the European improvisers associated with the FMP label. When returning to America later that year, she met British guitarist Derek Bailey at the end of a Company concert in New York City, a close friend she regularly collaborated with.
Léandre soon began organizing distinguished all women’s bands. These include European Women’s Improvising Group (EWIG), featuring herself, reedist Lindsay Cooper, vocalist Maggie Nicols, and pianist Irène Schweizer; Les Diaboliques, the trio with Irène Schweizer and Maggie Nicols, co-founded in 1990 and starting in 2016, The Tiger Trio with Nicole Mitchell and Myra Melford. These trailblazing groups played a vital role in the growing recognition and acclaim for women’s essential contributions to contemporary improvised music.
A progenitor of European improvisation, bassist Joëlle Léandre’s ongoing career is an integral story in 20th and 21st century music. Leandre has amassed over 200 recordings, including numerous collaborations with fellow improvising luminaries such as Marilyn Crispell, Anthony Braxton, Myra Melford, William Parker, Irène Schweizer, Derek Bailey, Nicole Mitchell, and many more. From early in her career, the caliber of her talent attracted attention. Leandre has performed with Leornard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Giacinto Scelsi, as well as with Merce Cunnigham and John Cage. The latter two composed “Ryoanji” for Leandre specifically. Over 40 composers have dedicated pieces for her.
Joëlle Léandre (born September 12, 1951) started playing music at age 8, initially playing the recorder before moving on to the piano. At 17, she studied at Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris. In Paris, Leandre encountered “the new thing,” musicians escaping America for fair compensation and proper recognition, including Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, Art Ensemble of Chicago. In a 2020 interview with Ken Weiss in freejazzblog.org, she commented: “They gave me jubilation, everything was new. Everything was possible. This was my generation. They gave me the message to ‘be you.’”
Léandre became a self-described “worker bee”, meeting and working with John Cage in 1972, writing music for dance in 1974, and leaving France for Buffalo, New York in 1976 to work with Morton Feldman. She met William Parker in 1979, and performed in a bass quartet with him, Peter Kowald, and Paul Rodgers. The following year, she moved to Berlin and performed with the European improvisers associated with the FMP label. When returning to America later that year, she met British guitarist Derek Bailey at the end of a Company concert in New York City, a close friend she regularly collaborated with.
Léandre soon began organizing distinguished all women’s bands. These include European Women’s Improvising Group (EWIG), featuring herself, reedist Lindsay Cooper, vocalist Maggie Nicols, and pianist Irène Schweizer; Les Diaboliques, the trio with Irène Schweizer and Maggie Nicols, co-founded in 1990 and starting in 2016, The Tiger Trio with Nicole Mitchell and Myra Melford. These trailblazing groups played a vital role in the growing recognition and acclaim for women’s essential contributions to contemporary improvised music.
Support for this event is provided by
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Marshall Allen & NYC All-Stars is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. This event is made possible by the Jacob and Ruth Epstein Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Council Member Chris Marte, the Jerome Foundation and the donations by artists and supporters. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council. Arts for Art receives support from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Willem de Kooning Foundation and Teiger Foundation through the Coalition of Small Arts New York.
