Le Journal

So declared Claude Nougaro when introducing Miles Davis at the Zénith in Paris in 1986. Four decades later, and with a discreet reordering of the Toulouse singer’s phrasing, it is fair to say that the 48th edition of Jazz in Marciac may aptly be described as one of “jazz in majesty.” While maintaining its longstanding commitment to openness and to related musical expressions, this year’s programme is firmly anchored in a renewed engagement with the music’s fundamental principles.

The artists assembled in this summer’s line-up collectively evoke the essential qualities of jazz: its primal rhythmic impulse, its association with freedom, improvisation understood as a practice of transcendence, and encounter as a central condition of creation.

More broadly, the programme attests to the vitality and global reach of jazz. Whether in New York or Madrid, Copenhagen or Seoul, its roots run as deep as those of a century-old tree along the Mississippi.

The 2026 edition also foregrounds two major centenaries: the births of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. These leading figures, whose innovations profoundly reshaped the language of jazz - both together and independently - are honoured through concerts that already stand as key events of the festival.

As for Sting, did he not surround himself with indisputable jazz musicians to record some of his most refined compositions? It is a telling sign.

Miles Davis himself famously rejected the term “jazz.” Yet he made it universal.

Over time, these four letters have thus turned Marciac into a village of global significance. The 2026 edition bears witness to this, in full majesty.