Tim Hughes soaks up the sounds of Jazz à Vienne: one of the world's great music festivals in a spectacular setting

THE setting could not be more impressive. A Roman amphitheatre dating back more than 2,000 years, scooped into the side of a valley overlooking the broad sweep of one of France’s great rivers.

As a monument to a glorious past, it is magnificent. But the theatre in the historic city of Vienne, crowned by a crumbling medieval castle and perched on the Rhone, is no artefact; it is home to one of the world’s great music festivals – and certainly its coolest.

Jazz à Vienne attracts the cream of the world’s jazz artists to this ancient spot downstream from Lyon, at the start of the sultry South. A look at the line-up reveals why, for lovers of jazz, and music in general, this is an unmissable festival. Santana, Sonny Rollins, George Benson, Chick Corea, Ben Harper, Rodriguez and Joe Jackson are all packing their sunglasses and heading to this cultural treasure house for its 16-day celebration of sound.

“There is nowhere better for a music festival,” says jazz lover Isabelle Faure, whose job it is to promote the charms of the Rhone-Alps region, of which Vienne is a part. “This beautiful town has so much history and culture, as well as an amazing market and great restaurants that it is worth a visit all year round. But the jazz festival makes it truly unique."

As with so many local people, the festival, the first of its kind in France, is a major part of Isabelle’s year in a way that Cheltenham, Glyndebourne or Glastonbury will never be here.

While fans come from as far as Paris, it has a strong local feel. It is as friendly as it is stylish and is resolutely uncommercial, and is largely run by volunteers. “We never miss it,” she says.

Last year the big draws included Hugh Laurie, Bobby McFerrin, the McCoy Tyner trio, George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic, Earth Wind and Fire and Richard Galliano. This year’s bill is, if anything, even more impressive. And eclectic.

Successive years have seen the festival grow ever broader; a cause embraced by this year’s mission statement Tous le Jazz – all of jazz.

And it lives up to its claim, with individually-themed nights reflecting every aspect from Cuban (with the world-famous Buena Vista Social Club Orchestra), funk (with Kool & The Gang and Chic), Caribbean (featuring Kassav, Malavoi and Celine Bonacina), Gypsy (Goran Bregovic), blues (Johnny Winter, Shemekia Copeland and Robert Cray), Gospel (La Velle and Don Bryon) and, reasonably enough, French (with Jacky Terrasson among the Gallic luminaries).

And as if that wasn’t enough, this year’s gathering is followed by a Soirée Special featuring the legendary Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

The big shows take place in the 7,500-seat amphitheatre – known, appropriately as the Théâtre Antique – where the very legionnaires who hassled Asterix the Gaul no doubt enjoyed their own music, drama and, possibly, less wholesome attractions.

And to British festival-goers, raised on a seasonal fix of muddy fields, sweaty marquees or rained-upon deck chairs, it’s a jaw-dropping experience – particularly from the vertiginous top rows, with their sweeping views down the steeply-stacked stone terraces, over the brightly-lit stage and beyond to the vineyards of the famous Côte-Rôtie.

Except for the state-of-the-art lighting and sound engineering, the scene must look much like it did in the days of Julius Caesar.

But while spectators of yore bayed for blood, today’s spectators are a civilized crowd – content to sip good wine or small beers, while taking in the sound of some of the world’s top artists – who, judging by the comments of one of last year’s enamoured stars, the American jazzman Larry Carlton, are genuinely grateful just to be here. Clearly the view from the stage is equally impressive.

While the amphitheatre tops the bill for grandeur, today’s jazz gladiators battle it out for musical supremacy across the city – from an open-air stage among the striking Roman remains in the Scènes de Cybele park, to the cool late-night Club de Minuit, the minimalist surroundings of the Gallo-Roman Museum and the shadow of Vienne’s equivalent of the Pantheon – the colonnaded temple of Augustus and Livia, in the centre of its tangle of medieval lanes.

For something edgier, and for a chance to dance, head down to the riverside after dark for Jazzmix – a freewheeling mix of genre-busting live music and DJ sets in a stunning mirrored ‘Spiegeltent’ big top. Then there are free performances, parades, workshops, talks and lots of impromptu happenings.

But while the music is good, it would be a waste to come all this way and not soak up the other great attractions of what was once the capital of ancient Burgandy. They include its squat-towered cathedral, its Romanesque churches, cloisters crammed with Roman statues, and the 2nd-century Roman Pyramid at the heart of what was once the local chariot-racing ‘circus’ – and rumoured by some to mark the tomb of the odious Pontius Pilate. Oh, and then there’s the food.

Patrick Henriroux is the celebrity chef of Viennois and his two Michelin starred-restaurant La Pyramide (in the shadow of the Roman landmark) is its culinary shrine. Fresh, modern and elegant with a nod to the past, the surroundings of his garden restaurant, and adjoining bistro, match his food – which, it is reassuring to see, is as popular with local families enjoying a leisurely lunch as it is with visitors and, of course, the odd musician. And what is the key to Patrick’s success? “I only use the best local produce,” he tells me while we shop for ingredients at Vienne’s Saturday market – a sprawling carnival of fresh produce with more than 400 stalls. The second biggest in France, after Nice, it’s gone by late morning.

It’s 7am, the morning after a late night of jazz hip-hop and strong local beer, but an espresso and a succession of tasters of cheese, sausage, fruit and more cheese later, and we are ready to shop. After an hour of touching, tasting, weighing and buying, we are relaxing outside a bar beneath the Temple, with more coffee, the newly-acquired crates of vegetables, fruit, eggs, bread, fish, meat and bundles of herbs already on their way back to La Pyramide, thanks to a cheery kitchen porter. A few hours later they remerge from his kitchen, transformed into his trademark Menu Marché.

“It’s more than a market,” he says, “It’s a social event which gathers more than 4,000 people in summer. Most of it is organic and we know all the producers and growers as friends.”

Like the jazz festival, the food is international in quality – but reassuringly local in colour and flavour.

ESSENTIAL TRAVEL FACTS

JAZZ

  • This year's festival runs from June 28 to July 13. The Soirée Special with Neil Young is on July 15. For tickets and programme, visit jazzavienne.com or call +33 (0)892 702007

GETTING THERE

STAY

EAT

INFORMATION