BadBadNotGood's heterodox jazz at the Days Off festival

For once, the large Pierre-Boulez Hall of the Philharmonie de Paris, in the ^19th arrondissement, has been configured with a pit for a standing audience. And, among this audience, the widespread wearing of caps indicates that it is not, a priori, made up of the usual music lovers of the venue. The heatwave that has hit France may have something to do with it, more surely the mix of jazz, hip-hop, soul, and electro fans who came to listen, on Sunday, June 29, to a band that has the particularity of merging these genres: BadBadNotGood – normally stylized in capital letters.

For its fifteenth edition, the Days Off festival, organized by the Philharmonie and whose lineup, despite being tight, is one of the most attractive of the summer (with Beth Gibbons on July ^1st , Bloc Party on the 3rd and Nick Cave on the 5th), hosted for a unique concert in France the Canadian collective created in 2010. Quickly classified in the jazz section because its three founders followed this training at Humber College in Toronto. Influenced by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and Sun Ra, they were also immersed in hip-hop culture. In their early days, they covered songs by New Yorkers A Tribe Called Quest and Californians Odd Future, whose members included Tyler, The Creator and Frank Ocean. The former introduced BadBadNotGood, who found himself accompanying the latter on stage. Approved by rappers, the group has also collaborated with other heavyweights such as Ghostface Killah (ex-Wu-Tang Clan) and Kendrick Lamar.

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