Pannonica – Natalie Dessay & Le Zoot Octet

An aristocrat passionate about jazz, Pannonica de Koenigswarter leaves life in a castle for New York clubs! At the dawn of the 1950s, the benefactress Baroness watches over a community of Afro-American jazzmen in the shadows. For more than thirty years, she will be their patron, providing these artists with unwavering support as well as exemplary and visionary recognition. On stage, Natalie Dessay embodies with talent this emblematic figure, close friend of many jazz legends, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker in the lead. Together, with the brilliant collective of musicians the Zoot Octet, they retrace the journey of "Nica", offering a poetic show mixing theater and music, stage plays and archive images. The show "Pannonica" was created in 2019 by the Zoot Collectif and was performed for the first time at La Seine Musicale. For this album release, the Zoot octet presents the original soundtrack of the show accompanied by Natalie Dessay as a narrator.