Emma

The Franco-Swedish guitarist Paul Jarret’s project EMMA is inspired by the wave of Swedish immigration to the United States who happened during the second half of the 19th century. A theme that resonates with many of our contemporary issues. With his quartet, he creates a chamber-jazz that blurs the lines between improvised, minimalistic and repetitive musics, traditional Swedish music and liturgical musics. EMMA is also inspired by songs evoking exiles and Scandinavian melodies. After being the ground of the Native Americans nations since the dawn of time, the United States of America started building themselves from the 17th century by welcoming the first explorers, then the successive waves of settlers. England, Ireland, Italy... A couple of European countries are known for their contribution to colonizing the United States. Sweden was one of them with the massive exodus of the population between 1840 and 1920. Fleeing from the starvation that was happening at that time, but also the economical difficulties caused by the Great Famine from 1867 to 1869, the yoke of the Lutheran church in Sweden, around 1,3 billion Swedes (a fifth of the population) left their country to join the New World. That’s how they participated, as well as many other European migrants, to the foundation of the United States of America. Emma Jonasson, great-grandmother of the guitarist Paul Jarret, has emigrated to the USA in 1898. She stayed in New-York several years before leaving for Sweden again where she started a family in 1910. She is the main inspiration of the project EMMA. It is also inspired by different documents as The Emigrants (Utvandrarna) by Vilhelm Moberg, a Swedish classical literature that tells the story of a peasant family’s exile. EMMA is a musical evocation of this Swedish exodus to the United States, unrecognized in France. But it’s also a consideration on the consequences of one’s choices have on their own life and on the future generations, and a metaphorical expression of the contemporary issues.