AKODA feat. GERALDINE LAURENT

Photo : ©Iris-MARDEMOUTOU

For many years, the Festival Éclats d’Émail Jazz Edition has been following pianist, composer, and singer Valérie Chane Tef (she was invited as part of the “Talents du Jazz de Nouvelle-Aquitaine” in 2020). This is once again one of the great strengths of a festival: giving its audience the chance to meet artists over the long term and appreciate their work and artistic world. Blending Creole and Caribbean rhythms with improvisation, this ensemble then toured widely through many concerts and festivals. Several albums trace this journey and these enthusiastic and authentic musical travels. Since 2025, the group has returned to our great delight and now claims “the signature sound of a fusion between jazz and Creole ballads: powerful, visceral, immediate.”

For this return, we of course find Valérie Chane Tef on keyboards and compositions, joined by Teddy Sorres, a bassist from Réunion who recently arrived in Paris and is particularly known for his collaboration with fellow Réunion musician Meddy Gerville, jazz and maloya pianist. On percussion, the Cuban Inor Sotolongo, who has worked with Herbie Hancock, Omar Sosa, Roberto Fonseca, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mario Canonge… And as guest artist, the renowned alto saxophonist Géraldine Laurent, whose impressive career includes several Victoires du Jazz and the Django Reinhardt Prize from the Académie du Jazz in 2008, among many other distinctions, thus completing a truly high-level trio.

Line-up :
Valérie Chane Tef – piano, vocals, keyboards
Teddy Sorres – bass
Inor Sotolongo – percussion
Guest : Géraldine Laurent – alto saxophone