The French equivalent of BBC Radio 3, France Musique, found an ingenious way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of De Gaulle’s “Appel du 18 juin,” made on theBBC. The whole day was broadcast from London.

Open Jazz, broadcast every night at 7 15pm, came last Friday from the Institut Francais in South Kensington, and investigated the new jazz scene in London.

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– Stephanie Knibbe, who knows both scenes, talks about the dynamism, the self-reliant culture and the lack of formal structures around the music in London.

–Jonathan Bratoeff talks of the reasons which prompted him to move to London from Montpellier, and of the influence of Seb Rochford.

-pianist Kit Downes is interviewed in English by Alex Dutilh

-Saxophonist Robin Fincker – who studied at the same Lycee in Montpellier as Jonathan Bratoeff – talks about the origins of the Outhouse Ruhabi project, working with Gambian Wolof drummers. Fincker talks about the origins of the Loop Collective. “L’Union fait la Force,” as they say in Montpellier

–Alexander Hawkins – Dutilh: “You don’t belong to a collective. Are you a fierce individualist?” Hawkins: (joking) “You’ve got me in one.”

– Kit Downes and Alexander Hawkins are asked about playing both the organ and the piano

-Dutilh then introduces a track from the album Howeird of Sam Crockatt and Gwilym Simcock

-Dutilh: “I hear a diversity about the scene in London.” Knibbe: “It’s the musicians who make the scene….”