A companion of several French jazz legends, such as Daniel Humair and Bernard Lubat, Christophe Monniot has made a name for himself through his astonishing mastery of several instruments in the saxophone family (alto, baritone, and sopranino) and his ability to take musical cross-streets where the legacy of the great jazz innovators meets more European ways of improvising music. With this new quartet, which brings together strong personalities – pianist Sophia Domancich, double bassist Felipe Cabrera, and drummer Denis Charolles – he announces his desire to reconnect with certain aspects of the jazz tradition (Keith Jarrett, Cannonball Adderley, and Dave Brubeck are, according to him, in his sights). There is no doubt, however, that Monniot is as keen to play them as he is to game them during the concert. (Vincent Bessières)

Pascal Niggenkemper, an adventurous double bassist who spent a decade experimenting and meeting new people on the New York scene, as well as in Aveyron in France, where he honed his sense of space and his relationship with time, presents The Ocean Within Us, a project first performed at the Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin festival last June. Blending spoken word, electronic treatments, groove and free improvisation, this band combines the rhythmic intelligence of Mariá Portugal, drummer from Brazil influenced by jazz and Brazilian popular music, the masked textures of Berlin of Berlin keyboardist Liz Kosack, and the saxophone riffs of Athens-based Nicky Kokkoli, transformed with the help of accessories by the leader, the true pivot of this grooving machine that is as improbable as it is dizzying. The Ocean Within Us is a Jazzdor production.