Live Jazz in Paris and Jazz clubs in Paris for January 2009 - Happy New Year

So, 2009 looks like live jazz in Paris is going to be great despite (or maybe because of) the global downturn. Jazz clubs in Paris are never going to be making that much money, so hopefully having a few less tourists turn up won't change their situation too much... like the whole jazz world, we're used to operating on a shoestring!

That said, January is always a slow month, but I think there is some great stuff going on - so, here's some links and some recommendations for the next couple of weeks. As usual, explore the Venues page and you'll find lots of clubs in your Quartier of Paris and you can make your own choices!





This is a nice choice- free, apart from the price of a return ticket on the RER - and, if you're inclined, you can combine it with a day at Euro-Disney, since its one RER stop away. (though why come to Paris and then spend a day at Disney I've never understood - but hey, its there, so why not.... I guess) Or if members of the family are looking for that European mall shopping experience you can always head out early to the immense designer discount mall at Val d'Europe before catching some music... Anyway... - At the Val d'Europe stop at the Médiathèque du val d’Europe there's a nice sounding Trio - on guitar N'guyen Le, vibraphone, Philippe Mace, and drums and percussion Joel Allouche - I always love that crossover world and it seems that they're going to be playing around with vietnamese traditional musics.... Its free but you'll just need to make reservations - 01 60 43 66 28.

In town, here is a very cute idea - At Sunside, every Sunday for January and February at 4pm they will have Jazz for families and kids.






they're going to do an 'homage' to a different jazz legend, or jazz theme evey week and the idea is really to have families and kids and turn the younger set on to jazz. So, if you're in the city with the young ones, it might be an event for you. And, for the older set who want to stick around - and 9pm there will be a jazz jamm based around the theme, so you'll have lots players dropping by with their instruments looking for a chance to play.

so - here's the lineup for the next few weeks...
le 11 janvier : "hommage à Dizzy Gillespie”
le 18 janvier : "hommage à George Gershwin”
le 25 janvier : Laurent Courthaliac Trio plays Sonny Rollins

Philippe Soirat - drums ; Mathias Allamane - upright bass ; Laurent Courthaliac - piano

enjoy....

Slave and Master

The blogs on pause for a week while I finish work on the album - today I'm off to spend the day in front of a set of 20,000 dollar audio speakers listening to myself - I'll be hanging out while James Paul of Rogue studios, 'masters' my album.





Wikipedia defines this as "a form of audio post-production - the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master); the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). After the advent of tape it was found that master recordings could be optimized by making fine adjustments to the balance and equalization prior to the cutting of the master disc. Mastering became a highly skilled craft and it was widely recognized that good mastering could make or break a commercial recording"

When pressed for more details James defined it as 'I give him some money, he sits in front of a set of 20,000 dollar speaker for hours, and then he gives me an album that sounds amazing'....

beyond that it seems to be witchcraft and magic...

basically as far as I can see its the process of finding a middle balance for the sound on the album so it rings true on every kind of speaker - the cheapo transistor, or the ultra high end, or the car stereo... cutting some frequencies, adding others...

it should be a fascinating and strange few hours