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As summer jazz festival season kicks off in Paris, we’re joined by two rising stars of the London and Paris jazz scenes who both use their music to explore their roots. Saxophonist Camilla George was born in Eket, Nigeria, but moved to London at a young age, where she says the city’s diverse jazz scene gave her the confidence to write music about her hometown, fusing jazz with Afrofuturism and hip-hop. Trumpeter Hermon Mehari was born in Missouri to parents who’d fled Eritrea, and he now lives in Paris. He had a more classic jazz training, but began exploring his family history during the Covid lockdown, which led him to incorporate traditional Eritrean rhythms and melodies into his music.