Bridging an ocean through music

La Rochelle sits on the west coast of France, an ocean away from its sister city New Rochelle. Face-to-face communication between residents of the two cities is rare at best. However, the cities are connected through music, jazz specifically. Through the Sister City Initiative, New Rochelle sent 24-year-old musician Zachary Lipton to La Rochelle to both play jazz and to be an ambassador to represent the Queen City of the Sound.

“I was constantly moving from place-to-place to play,” Lipton, a saxophone player, explained. “It was a much more hectic schedule but it wasn’t work. It was for pleasure.”

Lipton observed that La Rochelle is similar in size to New Rochelle but since La Rochelle is not by a major urban center like its sister city, more people would come to La Rochelle for entertainment. Lipton took advantage of being able to play everyday, sometimes two or three times. He would perform in the streets during the day and would play at various theaters at night.

“It was exciting playing this music, a lot of which I knew and a lot of which I picked up on the fly,” Lipton said. “In the U.S., musicians play more modern jazz music but in France they play earlier jazz. It really doesn’t matter what you are playing if you are playing with great musicians which I did.”

Brian Carter, a local musician and artist relationship manager of the Sister City Initiative, was one of the adjudicators who evaluated Lipton. Carter pointed to Lipton’s “excellent” musicianship, his presentation and the experience he had leading his own quartet. Carter has traveled to La Rochelle in the past describing it as a “beautiful vacation town.” During his time in France, Carter noticed that the French have a huge appreciation for American music, jazz in particular. He noted that the French have a greater appreciation for jazz musicians since they do not play as much in France as they do in the United States.

Read entire article at mysoundreport.com