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2021
2022 new
generation hand casts
*****
the mayoralty (town hall behind) is undertaking a
construction revamp of the jazz festival site
HAND CASTS OF JAZZ MUSICIANS
Reviewed by ANDRE BEAUMONT
Antibes Juan-les-Pins, home to the Jazz a Juan music festival, spends a lot on pavements which is good because that is what everyone sees and walks on.
There used to be a semi-ceremonial walk of fame of the hand casts of famous jazz musicians who had performed there since the mid-nineties along the Pinede Gould pavement. It did not take itself too seriously - you could walk on the casts, you could look at them, or just dash by. With time they might have got worn down but it would have taken decades.
Recent pavement upgrades for 2019 have meant that the original casts, or first generation impression casts, have been dug up and inferior second generation casts taken from the first impression casts line the route but in an inferior disposition that makes it nothing like a walk of fame, whether it had been a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek one or not. You simply cannot inspect them processionally as before though they are still set in the walkway - you would block the paths of multiple pavement users.
Doubtless the first impressions have been kept and could at a future date be displayed processionally atop a low wall or something so all is not lost. There are 55 casts and the number grows each year. For those interested, below are photographs of 35 of the first impressions photographed in 2016. I have the photographs of most of the others but taken mainly on mobile phones. The casts are, in all events, part of the history of the place.
