Untitled Document
OZMA
France
David Florsch – sax
Guillaume Nuss – tromb
Adrien Dennefeld – g
Edouard Séro-Guillaume – b
Stéphane Scharlé – dr
When the group Ozma arrives in Vilnius this year it will definitely come as a surprise if the musicians fail to say at least 10 words in Lithuanian. Why is that? Because the festival has established a special relationship with this group—the only performers to have been invited to the festival three times.
Ozma’s fans sometimes joke that this group is the only reason that Strasbourg isn’t known solely as a city where serious looking men and women have their meetings at the European institutions; the group was founded there eight years ago. A special ambience and wild ideas earn this group the sympathy of their audiences. And the audience in Vilnius is no exception. After their performances in the 2006 and 2007 festivals, many Lithuanians went searching for Ozma's recordings on the Internet.
Hailed as the Best French Group at the National Jazz Competition in Paris two years ago, the group has performed in its current incarnation since 2004, when founder, guitarist Adrien Dennefeld, percussionist Stephane Scharle, and bass player Edouard Sero-Guillaume were joined by saxophone player David Florsch and trombone player Guillaume Nuss (who was voted Performer of the Year at the same competition). In November 2005, the group released their debut album Ozma. The French performers “borrowed” the name for their group from the famous fantasy book The Wizard of Oz.
Over the past few years the musicians toured Europe twice and are arriving in Lithuania with their brand new album, released this October, Strange Traffic. The audience of Vilnius Mama Jazz festival and the European Jazz project presented by Vilnius-European Capital of Culture will be among the first people to hear the songs on this album live.
How should we describe their music? For those who have never heard Ozma, no description can do them justice; you just have to hear the music for yourself. Don’t expect the usual jazz sounds, but rather, music brimming with lightness and humour. Yet the musicians’ sense of fun does not overshadow their virtuosity. Members of Ozma describe their music as an “explosive” jazz. Artists usually tend towards hyperbole, but in this case there is nothing to argue—the music of Ozma really does remind you of musical fireworks.
