Brass bands always have a jamming effect. When the brass and the bass drum resonate, many of us get excited like never before. On the occasion of the very popular Brass bands partythis Saturday evening, in Montpellier (Hérault), you were asked why these ultra-festive arrangements put you, each time, in a trance.
There are those who don’t explain it, like Magalie. “I really can’t say why. I don’t have any memories of childhood with brass bands… But it’s systematic, all I have to do is see one approaching or hear one in the distance to get the smile right away. That’s enough to redo my week! “says this reader, who remembers having applauded a marching band in Nantes, which played Abba. ” It was extraordinary ! For Céline, if brass bands have such power, it’s because “the sound vibrates strongly, with the brass.” “You feel the music all over your body,” she says. “Lately I heard The first day (of the rest of your life) of Etienne Daho, as I was crossing the street. I stopped and turned around so I could listen to the whole song! »
The brass bands, “it returns us to the corner of the street”
Manue is also a fan of this unique sound. “It comes from the costumes, a choreography, an arrangement… Or other things! “, confides this Montpellier. “The marching bands, it turns you around the corner. We hear songs like we’ve never heard them before. The brass bands bring out musical voices that weren’t heard in the original piece. And we start loving songs that we never thought we could love. For example, I love Johnny Hallyday played by brass bands. I love it so much that it made me love it for real, in the end! »
Manue even went to the other side: she became a musician, in the Kadors, one of the formations that organize the Festival of fanfares, in Montpellier. “It was my first Festival of brass bands, in 2001. I go from brass band to brass band, I enjoy myself, and then, suddenly: the Kadors! Here is the big flash. I said to myself “I want to do this!”. Six years later, I was part of the family. Jonathan is also crazy about brassy covers. Every Ascension weekend, he criss-crosses Brest, for its Brass Band Festival. “Crazy energy, simplicity, accessible musicians, little or no stage, little or no electricity, for Jonathan, that’s what brass bands are all about. For me, it’s the spirit of the party in its purest form, without fuss, without big head and without big financial stakes. »
“It’s the strong mix of styles that attracts spectators, from Johnny to Avicii! »
Vanessa also puts on her tap shoes, when the brass bands resound. “Like those of Prom’Aude, in Lézignan-Corbières” (Aude), she confides. “The brass bands, it sticks chills, she assures. We’re all here, together, outdoors, and it’s almost summer. It is a momentum that calls us to dance. And to smile. Stéphane, he loves bandas from the South-West. They “really make you jubilate, and make you want to jiggle! “says this saxophonist. Mathew, on his side, was a trumpeter, in a banda. It is a music, he explains, “unifying and intergenerational. And it is above all the strong mix of styles that attracts the spectators… I played Johnny Hallyday and Avicii! »
Marie-Thérèse, too, played in a brass band, with her sister and her father, in the 1960s, in Seine-et-Marne. “It’s all my childhood,” says this Ile-de-France, who was on the drum. “It was joy, all along our route. Marching bands make everyone smile, make everyone’s eyes shine. It is a moment of communion. It is a moment of simple happiness. The brass bands, “it’s life”, even Michel gets carried away.
“We are on the ground. There is almost no scene”
Cécile Cazals, president of the Arc-en-ciel des faubourgs association, which organizes the Festival of fanfares in Montpellier, plays the bass drum with the Kadors. For this musician, if the brass bands are so successful, it is undoubtedly because “what the brass bands give, the public receives it a hundredfold! “, she confides. “Whether it’s a municipal party, a private party, a funeral, a wedding… It’s always magical. »
No doubt, also, because the braggarts, the musicians of the brass bands, are “accessible”, continues the musician. “Accessible to sharing, to invitation, to discussion… We are on the ground. There is almost no scene. And when there is one, we don’t necessarily like it. We like to be in the heart of people. And for the musicians themselves, too, brass bands have extraordinary power. Play their line, each time, a potato not possible. “Between us, it does us good, too, continues Cécile Cazals. It carries us. It transports us. We are transcended by ourselves! »
The Festival of brass bands took place this Saturday (from 7 p.m.), in the Boutonnet and Beaux-Arts districts, in Montpellier. FREE ENTRANCE. The whole program is here.