LA GIGOUILLETTE

The musicians in the association La Gigouillette have always shaken a leg; they have rhythm in their bones! For they have been playing and dancing since 1989. The musicians of La Gigouillette took their original inspiration from the folk revival of the 1970s and from local groups such as La Bamboche and Kinkerne. And since that beginning, La Gigouillette has responded to the expanding “trad wave”.

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La Gigouillette is an open stage; it draws the musicians in. Each is free to enter or to leave as he or she wishes. The success of La Gigouillette thus stems from how its members create a network with other associations in the region; they may play with J’attendsveille, or Croc’ Danse, la Gigue, Les 4 Saj, Violon Talon, Floor, Cameline, Accord des Alpes or Dajda, according to their chosen affinities or preferred styles.

The musicians of La Gigouillette can also be found every other Friday on the dance floor at Sales, near Rumilly in the Albanais area of Haute-Savoie, which is between Lake Annecy and the Lac du Bourget. It should be emphasized that these are probably the only bals in the region where amplification is not employed, which gives to the “bals at Sales” a certain very special ambience.

The “open stage” principle is very beneficial for the musicians. It brings openness, as the name implies, and also experimentation. Everyone plays what they can. The musician who knows the tune launches it with gusto and generosity, in order to share what he or she knows, to encourage enjoyment in his interpretation, and to get the impatient dancers going. And the other musicians join in and follow his lead with support and embellishments. In this way, they learn new melodies just as fiddlers used to do in the old days, and in this way the tradition is perpetuated, at the same time as evolving, as the older players teach the younger ones - and vice versa! And in this way, too, the folk tradition of an instrument is enriched without excluding the addition of more sophisticated touches. In La Gigouillette tunes from all regions of France - and even the world - come together and are stirred in a common musical pot. No one claims ownership; there is no copyright; trad belongs to everyone!

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Habitués of Feufliâzhe love La Gigouillette when the players join those onstage to play for the dancers on Sunday evening. They know how to carry along all the musicians who are already there at the end of the festival, and all the listeners and dancers who don’t want the enjoyment to end. Certain last nights have been especially memorable, when the musicians of La Gigouillette have got together with other very different players, such as those of Ambiance Tropicale from the Isle of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean, members of Hohtraxlecker from Austria, the young Piedmontese players of Trigomigo or those of OccitaNiss from Nice!

This year, we shall meet again (in alphabetical order):

Jean-Michel ABRY, guitare

Toussaint CAMILLI, accordéon

Danielle DE LA HERONNIERE, accordéon diatonique

Bruno DE MYTTENAERE, guitare

Claire FILLARD, violon, vielle à roue

Jean-Marie FLEAU, flûtes

Robert GEANT, banjo

Véronique GEANT, guitare

Jean GOMBIA, clarinette

Jacqueline LAFAVERGES, violon

Joël LENANCKER, banjo, nickelharpa, contrebasse

Gérard MENACHEMOFF, violon

Emmanuel RENARD, clarinette

Daniel SCHEPPLER, harmonica

in order to accompany their voices and your dancing by playing all the traditional music that they know, together with all their imaginative variations.

They will have had lots of practice, because they’ll have had to be ready and prepared by the end of May. This is because each year on the first Saturday of June,

they organise a “folk night” which attracts some 300 dancers who will jig until dawn and until the onion soup runs out. On this occasion, La Gigouillette invite their great friends and sometimes, if they can afford it, some of the great musical names from the Aosta Valley, from Piedmont, even from as far away as Berry or Brittany, even from Ireland - or even from Quebec.

Contact :

http://gigouillette.org/

Claire Fillard : 04 50 22 80 60