Jazz à Toute Heure

Jazz à Toute Heure: Twenty-Seven Years of Music in the Chevreuse Valley

Founded in 2000 by the eponymous association based in Choisel in the Yvelines, Jazz à Toute Heure is an atypical festival that rejects geographical and stylistic boundaries. For over two decades, it has travelled each spring through a rural and peri-urban area on the outskirts of Paris, transforming village halls, local theatres, and cultural spaces in the Haute Vallée de Chevreuse into exceptional concert venues.

A Travelling Festival Across Two Departments

One of the unique features of Jazz à Toute Heure is its profoundly travelling nature. The festival reaches seven partner communes spread across the Yvelines and Essonne departments: Gif-sur-Yvette, Les Molières, Bullion, Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis, and Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines. This geographical dispersion is a deliberate choice, allowing music to be brought closer to the residents in their own villages, without them having to travel long distances.

An Eclectic and Demanding Program

While jazz is at the heart of the festival's identity, the Jazz à Toute Heure program has evolved over the years to encompass a much broader musical spectrum. Blues, international pop, French chanson, rock, world music, and jazz coexist within the same logic of artistic quality. The programmers' only compass, in their own words, is “the pleasure that artists give us on stage”. This stylistic freedom has allowed the festival to host artists as diverse as American pianist Peter Cincotti, bluesman Bernard Allison, jazzman Sachal Vasandani, blues singer Kaz Hawkins, and the legendary duo André Ceccarelli and Biréli Lagrène.

Five Weekends to Discover the Chevreuse Valley

Jazz à Toute Heure unfolds over five consecutive weekends, offering a cultural experience spread out over time rather than an intense concentration over a few days. This particular rhythm invites the public to return from one weekend to the next, to explore the different communes of the territory, and to discover artists they might not have seen at a traditional festival. The Salle de La Terrasse in Gif-sur-Yvette is one of the festival's main stages in Essonne.

A Dedicated Association for Live Music

Behind Jazz à Toute Heure is an association of enthusiasts convinced of the social and cultural value of live music. The festival has been built without compromising on artistic quality while maintaining accessible prices and a close relationship with its audience. After twenty-seven editions, it remains one of the most appreciated festivals in the Greater Paris region, true to its mission of democratizing quality music in rural and peri-urban areas.