In the Midwest, during the 90s, a team of researchers joined forces to create a musical genre often referred to as “post-rock” which, as many had done before, borrowed some of its ideals from jazz. The genre was inaugurated by John McEntire, John Herndon, Doug McCombs, Dan Bitney and Jeff Parker – aka Tortoise. These five men used whatever they liked in the musical sandbox that was their playground: samba, dub, ambient, minimal music, concrete music, industrial music, krautrock, free, etc. Until 2010, when the city of Chicago gave the group the opportunity to celebrate the range of musical expressions born in this environment, with a new suite and several guests from the world of jazz and improvisation. To mark the inauguration of a new network of exchanges between French and American musicians – The Bridge – the Sons d’hiver festival invited Tortoise to reinvent this suite with several French improvisers, including guitarist Julien Desprez. Crossing worlds through musical mirrors.
The Bridge is an exchange network between French and American jazz musicians, mainly from Chicago. Each year, it will enable 4 transatlantic ensembles to form and tour clubs and festivals on both continents. The Bridge also plans to archive concerts and events (interviews, reports, audio and/or video recordings of concerts, workshops, conferences, etc.) to eventually provide an irreplaceable archive for jazz and improvised music fans, members of the music industry, music students and researchers working in these fields.