“Music brings so much joy!” : jazz legend Rhoda Scott, featured at the Jazzoparc festival in Anduze in Gard

Rhoda Scott (au centre) et les Lady All Stars ouvriront la première soirée du festival. Alexandre Lacombe

Organiste et chanteuse mondialement reconnue, ancienne comparse de Ray Charles ou d’Ella Fitzgerald, Rhoda Scott donne, vendredi 21 juin, un concert à Anduze avec sa formation 100 % féminine, Lady All Stars.

You have lived in France for over 50 years, and this is the first time you have played at the Jazzoparc festival. A still young festival, born in 2021. What made you want to accept its invitation?

I wanted to because for me it’s a wonderful invitation. And I don’t know Anduze, I barely know where it is (laughs)! I wanted to discover this city. I know quite a few towns in France, and I had never heard of them. I always want to discover towns in France that I don’t know yet!

You come with the Lady All Stars group. A team made up of eight musicians, including you. It’s a continuation of your previous group, also female, the Lady Quartet. And you have said before that this is one of the most beautiful musical adventures of your life. Why ?

For me, it’s a revelation! I had never played with women before this adventure. You have to see the camaraderie, the respect, the interest we have in each other. This is fantastic.

Playing between women changes something in the pleasure of playing ?

Not in the pleasure of playing. As we are usually in the minority, solidarity works a lot between us.

The other members of the Lady All Stars represent, in their own way, a new generation in the world of jazz. As if you wanted to pass on your experience to them ?

It’s like I was their grandmother (laughs)! It’s good to pass on, but that’s not my claim. Although they say they learn a lot from the experience when we play together. But above all, it is still solidarity that matters to me. I can be an example for them, from a career perspective. But I learn a lot from them too!

What did you learn from them?

We play our own songs, our own compositions. And when we play their songs, I always say that they kick my ass! Because they will do things that are outside of my experience. Thanks to them, I’m moving forward!